Wisconsin is home to surprising pieces of transportation history that span centuries and cover planes, trains, and automobiles, and everything in between. There's the world's only Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee that features the company's oldest production bike, known as Serial Number 1, as well as the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay. A small airport in Oshkosh even becomes the busiest airport in the world for one week a year when it hosts the 700,000 attendees of the EAA's annual AirVenture show.
About equidistant from each of these three Wisconsin cities, you'll find a funny thing: one of the racing world's most iconic Corvette sponsorships. It's located on a bridge lovingly referred to by Road America attendees as Corvette Bridge, and it's held that name since the mid-1950s, despite other auto manufacturers' and advertisers' names appearing on the bridge for varying lengths of time throughout the last 70 years. That's right, Corvette Bridge — located above turn six of the Road America track — is turning 70 this year. To celebrate this favorite haunt of Corvette lovers and Road America attendees from across the country, let's dig into the history of this timeless advertisement.
The humble beginnings of Corvette Bridge
Located just outside of Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the Road America track isn't the type of place you'll find one of the state's strange speed limit signs with decimal points, but it's still iconic. The 4-mile track was laid in 1955 after a statewide ban on street racing and has remained largely unchanged since then. It's been voted Best NASCAR Track in the country twice by USA Today readers, and the track features 14 turns.
In 1956, a footbridge was built over turn six — which is at the top of a brutal uphill stretch — to allow viewers a better vantage point to watch this critical part of the track from, but it didn't yet bear the Corvette advertisement it's come to be known for. In 1961, the bridge showed off a Pepsi ad, but in 1963, the Corvette name took its place on this iconic bridge, reading "Corvette Sting Ray. Visit the Corvette Corral." This referred to the Corvette Corral created across from the pit at the race track by GM's then-VP of Styling, where Corvettes and their owners and enthusiasts could go to hang out. By 1970, the Corvette name still held the spotlight, and in bigger, blockier letters than ever, too. The letters ran the entire height of the bridge wall, saying nothing except "Corvette." This version of the sponsorship stayed up for over a decade, until it was replaced by an updated design that only lasted about a year.
Emotional whiplash for Corvette fans
In 1983, tragedy struck, and the Nissan name was painted over Corvette Bridge. Nobody called it Nissan Bridge, but it sure must've felt like a slap in the face to see the long-standing Corvette ad fall into obscurity. It was around this time that Road America started searching more seriously for corporate sponsors, so Nissan must've outbid GM for the coveted spot. The bridge stayed in Nissan's clutches all the way up until 1992, when the fourth-generation Corvette sign debuted on Corvette Bridge. This one stayed up four years this time, only to be replaced by a giant Toyota advertisement in similarly minimalistic, blocky letters to the second-generation Corvette sign.
Toyota remained the sovereign of Corvette Bridge from 1996 to 2010, which must've felt downright sacrilegious for the Corvette fanatics of the world. Thankfully, the Vette won back its spot once and for all (hopefully) in 2011, and let me tell you, the rededication of Corvette Bridge was an all-out affair. Corvette owners from all around got together to park their beloved (and some extremely rare) 'Vettes under the newly unveiled bridge and take photos and videos for the launch. Corvette has remained in control of this primo advertising spot ever since, and a Corvette ZR1 even set the track record at Road America in 2025. With some luck and a whole lot of love from the Vette-obsessed, this historic bridge may just hold on to the sports car's name for years to come.
