Part of the plans for my birthday weekend at Road America, was for my buddy and I to ride our scooters to downtown Elkhart Lake tonight. We’ve spent weeks trying to figure out the logistics of how to do this. The best plan we had come up with was to load the scooters onto the trailer, move the truck to somewhere nearby outside the track, then unload the scooters and ride into town.
After the last race we stayed to watch a live episode of The Marshall Pruett Podcast, and we were about to enact the plan, when another friend suggested we ask if we can leave the truck at the track for a couple hours and come back. Figuring it couldn’t hurt to ask, we went to the gate 4, the one nearest my truck. We were told this would be fine, but that particular gate would close at 8:00. They suggested we ask the staff at gate 6, which was open 24 hours.
So we rode over to gate 6 and told them we had a question. The staff member waved us past and around the gate, so we could get out of the flow of traffic. We then asked if it would be ok if we ride our scooters to downtown Elkhart Lake, and came back.
A very angry supervisor came over and said not only could we not do that, but since we had riden past the gate (which the staff member had waved us past and around when we stopped to ask a question!), we could not go back inside to get our truck. We were fine not being allowed to leave and come back, but we thought she was joking about not being able to get my truck. We thanked them and started back in to load the scooters on the trailer and leave, when she stopped us and said that we really could not go inside, because we had already left.
We were pulled aside. A security guard came over a few minutes later and told us to lead him back to the truck and start loading. He was going to watch us, and if we weren’t gone in 30 minutes, he would have us arrested for trespassing.
We pulled out 15 minutes after getting back to the truck. My friend feels it was simply comically rediculous, which it was. I, however, am seething with rage. If I wasn’t other people’s ride home, I would be on my way home right now. I don’t even want to watch the IndyCar race tomorrow, or ever go back to Road America again.