Operating

GingerMan

South Haven, MI

2.14

Miles (ext.)

11

Corners

36 ft

Width

1996

Full season

ta g3
scca g6
scca g4
rrw mcycle
nmsa aerial
gridlife g5
gmtrackspecs
gmsite g2
gmsite g1
gmsite 30years
gm+g7
g7
g5
aerial2wnames

Track photos only. Credits stay with the shooters.

Open files (Wikimedia Commons)

Layout map (not a gallery hero): Alexander Jones, public domain.

Pennsylvania lost the other Wilson club course. GingerMan still has a gate.

Alan Wilson design · Dan Schnitta · Safe Track Award · still family-run

How to read this record

  • Status — Operating / Closed / For sale describes the venue’s public state, not a campaign.
  • Category — Road courses live under Road Courses. Dirt ovals and clay plants live under Dirt Courses.
  • Three desks — Operator runs race days. Landowner holds the deed or lease. Land-use body is the city or township that zones the parcel. They are often three different names.
  • Postal city ≠ government — Mailing brands (Clarkston, Rossburg, New Weston, etc.) are not always the zoning desk. Trust the town box on this page.
  • Specs — When club figures and reviews disagree (turns, mileage), we print both. We do not invent a single number.
  • Gifts — A donation to Save Tracks Dot Org Foundation funds this cited record. It does not buy land and is not a gift to the operator or landowner. (Example: OCSC at Waterford is a 501(c)(4) — gifts there are not 501(c)(3) deductible.)
  • Corrections — Tip or source fix → Contact (topic: Correction / source).

Why this track matters

Pennsylvania just lost the other Wilson club course. Pitt Race is closed. GingerMan is the one that still has a gate.

Same designer. Alan Wilson laid out BeaveRun / Pitt Race and he laid this out: 36 feet wide, runoff you can miss into without buying a new car, no ditches and poles waiting in the grass. Victory Lane gave it the Safe Track Award for a reason. Recreational racers cannot afford to fix the car after a miss. That was the brief.

Ohio still has Nelson (the farm) and Mid-Ohio (the national plant). Michigan still has four public-ish road courses. This is the Wilson club course in that set. Chicago is two hours. Detroit is about 180 miles. The beach at South Haven is six miles west. Family still owns it.

What they built

1995. Dan Schnitta bought an old orchard east of South Haven after hunting land with room to build and no tight zoning. He already had a 0.6-mile backyard kart loop in Sister Lakes. He named this one after his Chicago tavern, The Ginger Man — J.P. Donleavy, Wrigleyville, bar money on the grader.

Alan Wilson and Schnitta used the roll of the land. Klett Construction paved it. Koch StyrElf polymer asphalt, made for Michigan winters. Testing October 1995. First full season 1996, cars and bikes.

2009–10. Turn 10 gets an extension — about 1,770 feet of new pavement, back-straight longer than 1,700 feet. Runoff set so the place can run counter-clockwise. Four configs after that.

2015. Full repave. Twentieth season.

They built it like they meant to keep it. They still have it.

The numbers

  • Official maps: original 1.88 miles · extended 2.14 miles · 11 corners · 36 feet wide · four configs including reverse
  • GRIDLIFE and RacingCircuits also print 2.21 miles after the Turn 10 add — both lengths stay in the record
  • Elevation, high to low: about 40 feet
  • Site: 350 acres official · 330 on Wikipedia
  • Lap record (Wikipedia): 1:24.949 — Tyler Thielmann, Formula 1000, 2015

Help keep this record public

A gift does not buy GingerMan. What it does: keep the record on the tracks still running and the ones that just closed.

Donate

Local racing scene

This is a club cathedral, not an IndyCar weekend. SCCA South Bend and Western Michigan run here. Track Night America. GRIDLIFE has used it as the Midwest flagship since 2014. ChampCar. 24 Hours of LeMons. Sportbike Track Time. FastLane on request.

Who uses the place

History

Schnitta is a Chicago club racer who wanted a track you could take a family to without wrecking the weekend car. He found sand, roll, and space on Phoenix Road. Wilson drew a course that surprises you from Turn 1 to 11 instead of chasing a headline lap time. GRIDLIFE showed up in 2014 and never really left. 2026: still operating. Track Night on the calendar. The gate phone still picks up.

What’s next

Still a private family plant. Large weekends (including GRIDLIFE) go through Geneva Township resolutions and Van Buren County Road Commission special-event permits on CR 388 / 62nd Street. Those minutes are the public watch file — not SaveTheTracks.

Help keep this record public

A gift does not buy VENUE. What it does: keep the record on the tracks still running and the ones that just closed.

Donate

The town that hosts it

Postal brand is South Haven. The circuit sits in Geneva Township, Van Buren County, east of the city, not on the beach, and not Wayne County’s Van Buren Township. GRIDLIFE special-event resolutions have gone through this township board. Confirm the parcel map if a filing ever moves the line; until then Geneva is the land-use body.

Land-use body & contacts

Geneva Township
Township Hall · 62127 CR 380, Bangor, MI 49013
269-427-7607
geneva8009@yahoo.com

Set meetings & calendar

Township Board: second Tuesday each month, 7:00 PM
Township Hall · 62127 CR 380, Bangor, MI

We publish the public record. We do not lobby the board.

Photo sources

  • Carpenterdesign; Alexander Jones — Commons-licensed files as credited on each image.
  • Andy Smedegard appears in a GRIDLIFE caption as the driver, not a photo credit desk.
  • Official site and GRIDLIFE galleries are copyright. Do not lift those files onto this page.
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