MADISON, Ill. – John Bommarito, the St. Louis-area auto dealer with dealerships around the country and online, stood at the very end of pit road with his entourage to take in the sights and sounds of Saturday night’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500.

It was a spectacular combination of noise and color at World Wide Technology Raceway.

With the starting lineup of cars in the NTT IndyCar Series saluting the fans with a three-abreast parade lap with fireworks and even explosions of flames shooting into the sky from the backstretch, the pre-race atmosphere was a spectacle.

The grandstands appeared full and Bommarito, who is an IndyCar Series superfan and sponsor for this annual event, couldn’t have been happier and prouder.

“You always wonder after you go one year or after you go two years if you are going to grow it, or if it is going to shrink,” Bommarito told NTT INDYCAR Mobile. “We are alive and well.

“What we have found out is there is a huge appetite in the Midwest for IndyCar racing, world-class racing, at World Wide Technology Raceway.”

For the first time since the NTT IndyCar Series returned to Gateway in 2017, the grandstands between Turns 1 and 2 were open. That was to accommodate several thousand additional spectators who were either part of the facility’s sponsorship with World Wide Technology, or were guests of the company attending an IndyCar Series race for the first time.

“What we did was partner with World Wide Technology and their basic charity relationships,” Bommarito said. “We went out and solicited them. Those are first-time IndyCar fans who have never experienced a race before. You are creating memories of a lifetime and creating IndyCar fans.

“We reached into their database and have a lot of good, close relationships with our vendor partners and we are accessing those databases. I have over 400,000 customers on my database. World Wise has thousands of employees plus all of their customers in the database plus all of the charitable giving we both do in our community.

“So, we reached out and said, ‘How about a chance to go to an IndyCar race, right here in your hometown?’”

The return to Gateway in 2017 was sensational as it was announced as a sellout for all sections that it put up for sale. That was the main frontstretch grandstand. In 2018, the attendance was slightly down for a number of reasons.

But this year, the crowd exceeded the attendance for the return to Gateway two years ago.

“Last year, we competed against a concert and against the St. Louis Cardinals,” Bommarito said. “This year, we began working in conjunction with the Cardinals and the St. Louis Blues of the NHL to make sure none of our events crisscross each other.

“And look what you have tonight; one of the biggest nights on the IndyCar circuit, right here at World Wide Technology Raceway.

“I don’t have the final count yet, but this looks to me like 42,000 plus another 11,000 over in the Turns 1 and 2. This is the biggest crowd yet.”

Bommarito said he is honored to be part of the NTT IndyCar Series schedule and likes to be under the lights on a Saturday night racing in late August as the final short oval race of the season.