ELKHART LAKE, Wis.--The Midwest Automotive Media Association (MAMA) hosted the 2024 Rally May 21-23 at Road America. 100 journalists put nearly 80 vehicles through their paces on track, autocross, street drives, and a technical off-road course sponsored by Jeep. Many of MAMA’s 160 members arrived the evening before the official start day to attend the, now famous, Lake Street Café Fish Fry Dinner sponsored by the Chicago Automotive Trade Association (CATA). Then, on Wednesday, May 22nd with the Spring Rally in full swing, Toyota sponsored the kick-off breakfast with a presentation of their all-new Crown Signia. After the first morning of track hot-laps, street drives, and off-roading, the group fueled up with lunch sponsored by Hyundai featuring the new Elantra N.
The driving continued into the afternoon and members were also given the option to test out their karting skills at the Go-Kart track. By 4pm, the driving events had shut-down and a small but enthusiastic group of attendees made their way to the racetrack to participate in the fourth annual “4 Miles of Fitness,” sponsored by Kia, where they enjoyed walking, running, or biking downthe legendary 4.048-mile-long track.
Lincoln sponsored the cocktail reception with a static display of their new Nautilus strategically parked just outside by the courtyard. After dinner at the Osthoff Resort, everyone was invited to finish up the evening at the Siebkens Afterglow party sponsored by General Motors.
Day 2 continued the great weather with a breakfast presentation by Subaru with the new Forrester line-up. Street drives and a timed autocross competition sponsored by Genesis followed. Finally, the Spring Rally wrapped things up with a lunch presentation by Cars.com highlighting key statistics of the current automotive market.
MAMA welcomed new brands INEOS and Polaris to the event along with a new track day sponsor, Brembo.
“Brembo’s presence at the 2024 Rally showcases not only our wide range of increasingly digital and connected brake offerings but underscores our commitment to partnership with nearly every automaker present,” said Stéphane Rolland, president and CEO of Brembo North America.
This year’s rally marked the second year of MAMA’s Favorites awards. Members chose the following winners from seven categories.
Family Vehicle: 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe
Luxury Vehicle: 2025 Genesis GV80
Off-Roader: 2024 Ford Ranger Raptor
Pickup Truck: 2025 Ram 1500 Rebel
Performance Vehicle: 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N
Plug-In Vehicle: 2024 Kia EV9
Affordable Vehicle: 2024 Buick Envista
Post-rally results indicate over 550 posts, articles, videos, broadcast coverage and more reaching a collective 682.2M and nearly 1M video views. Engagement with social content topped 35.7k. (Source: Meltwater & Content Tracking).
Additional event sponsors include Brembo for the track laps and CDK Global for the EV drives.
