Motorcyclists in the Midwest are about to get a new option to scratch their track riding — and possibly racing — itch thanks to Evolve GT School and Track Days (Evolve GT) and Ozarks International Raceway (OIR).
Situated on 364 rolling acres near the popular Lake of the Ozarks resort area in central Missouri, OIR features multiple road course layouts, including a 19-turn 3.97-mile course, a 2.5-mile layout, and a 1.4-mile configuration.
Motorcyclists who visited the track shortly after it opened reported via social media that it was built for cars with too many hard barriers close to the track and it wasn’t suitable for motorcycle riding or racing. On-board video footage shot from cars driving the track appeared to back up these claims, and as a result, no motorcycle groups scheduled any track days or races at the brand new facility even though Missouri had no other road course and few viable road course options within hundreds of miles.
Then, OIR owner JR Pesek reached out to Evolve GT and ASRA and invited them to come see his track firsthand. Evolve GT partner Bill Sink made the two-day drive from Pennsylvania, unloaded his Yamaha MT-10, and started ripping laps around the undulating new track.
“We were riding around the [3.9-mile] full track,” Sink told Roadracingworld.com, “and there’s one section where you make a lefthand corner and you are right next to a concrete wall for, I mean, like a quarter-mile. And I was like, there’s nothing we can do here, man. And I was getting really depressed.
“Then JR goes, ‘Let’s try the other layout.’ I tried the outside loop layout, and the minute I tried that, I’m like, ‘Holy ****! We have it. This is it. This is gonna work.’
“This outside loop will work for motorcycles. It gets rid of that [wall-lined] section. That was extremely dangerous for motorcycles. But all the people who came there never tried the outer loop. They always wanted to run the full course.
“So, I started getting real excited. I did a ton of laps on it. It’s probably the best track I think I’ve been on. It is an absolutely incredible place, a world-class facility.
“It has all the infrastructure. You name it, man. They’ve got [signaling] lights on all the corners. They got Wi-Fi at all the corner stations, timing loops on the track and pit lane. The big, long garage building has 58 bays and has access to both tracks, the inner and the outer. The race control room is state of the art with TV monitors with all the information coming in from all the corners, just like at Barber.
“I can’t believe nobody is going there. Well, it’s going to change soon. That place will be a destination that people will travel from all over the country to ride on.”
Based on Sink’s assessment, Evolve GT has scheduled a track day at OIR on September 13. And based on feedback, data, and other information gathered during that event, more Evolve GT track days could be scheduled along with possibly some ASRA race events in the future.
Stay tuned.
Update: Based on Bill Sink’s report on Ozark International Raceway and its potential viability as a motorcycle road racing venue, we reached out to MotoAmerica Chief Operating Officer Chuck Aksland to see if there has been any contact between the track and MotoAmerica.
“They have reached out in the past,” Aksland told Roadracingworld.com. “We haven’t had the proper opportunity to go out there and make a visit, but it is our plan to get out there and make a visit some time soon.”
