Once home, Metzler informed his Wisconsin friends of the new sport of “drag racing” and was surprised to learn the sport had been flourishing in northern Illinois since his departure and three tracks in the Milwaukee area were already in operation. With his bank account padded by his military pay and his pockets bulging with “unreported earnings” from his weekend activities, Metzler knew the drag racing craze sweeping the country could reap substantial profits if properly promoted. He immediately went to work consolidating the 25 car clubs in the Milwaukee area into the Great Lakes Timing Association. By year’s end, the new group comprised over 500 members.

In early 1956, Metzler arranged for Bud Coons, the ex-police officer who was the public face of the emerging National Hot Rod Association, to attend a town meeting in Milwaukee to help the GLTA convince the public of the need for a purpose-built drag strip. Metzler had watched the NHRA’s Safety Safari assist in the opening of tracks across the country and brought Coons, whose sole purpose was to present an authoritative argument for the clubs in need of a place to race, to accomplish that goal. Coons did his job and sold the idea to the 140 civic leaders in attendance (including 40 police officers from surrounding cities). The GLTA got their parcel of land west of Kenosha near the small town of Union Grove and the new president of the GLTA, Robert W. Metzler, bankrolled the majority of the $35,000 project.

The preceding paragraphs only set the stage for the emergence of Metzler as legend, the history of whom is often woefully inaccurate. For no good reason, 1955 has been repeatedly cited as the opening year of Metzler’s dragstrip. However, grading and construction on the land, performed by the GLTA members, began on May 20, 1956, and the track, sporting the unusual name of Great Lakes Dragaway, opened under NHRA sanction and completed its first event on Sunday, October 7, 1956. Metzler was elated as two thousand spectators each paid ninety cents to watch Al Pfeifer of Kenosha wheel his Cadillac-powered 1950 Mercury to the first trophy in a field of 121 vehicles. The track ran five events through November 11, 1956.

However, the first events had major problems including dusty or muddy grounds, disorganized parking and, not least of all, a poor racing surface. Despite tremendous attendance in its abbreviated first season, Metzler spent the winter planning a much greater attempt. He also noticed instability among the GLTA and, when it reorganized into the Michigan Shores Timing Association, Metzler restructured the track’s business as Great Lakes Dragaway, Inc., with two other individuals as partners to ensure its security against the possibility of infighting among a large membership. 

The track was repaved and revamped with new grandstands, clocks and P.A. system through the spring of 1957, and racing on the new surface resumed on June 30 of that year.  Attendance dropped from its 1956 levels but Metzler was now free to do anything necessary to draw a crowd. He began making friendships with sports editors from every newspaper within 200 miles. He attended any automotive-themed gathering to personally hand out flyers for upcoming events. In short, Bob Metzler became a promoter.

In a matter of days, he presented a “reopening event” on July 4, 1957, (a Thursday race) and doubled the previous week’s turnout. Metzler then went on a publicity tour as far north as Green Bay and as far south as Chicago to promote the track’s "Grand (re) Opening" on Saturday and Sunday, August 3 and 4, 1957. Handing out flyers to every human he met and building the excitement of the race to anyone who would listen, Metzler promised over 400 race cars would be on the property for the event…even though the track had never drawn more than 180 to any previous event.

The “Grand Opening” pulled 460 cars and over 3100 spectators. Bob Metzler was officially a promoter…a damned good one.

Thus began a legend. Over the next five decades, Metzler built his empire and reputation on the fact that an event is only as big as people THINK it is. The key to his success as a promoter was simply to build an extravaganza and then deliver one. It was the mounting excitement and enthusiasm which drew the fans and it was the on-track delivery of the premise which made those paying customers leave the track satisfied and ready for the next spectacle. Most of all, the world had to know about it. Metzler spent days each week on the road delivering flyers and posters, offering interviews to sportswriters and working out major long-term advertising deals with radio stations across the area. 

Likewise, Metzler knew access to the track was critical to his survival. One of his first major changes after the August “Grand Opening” was to open the track on both Saturday and Sunday every week, unheard of in 1957. He produced his first major event, the Illinois-Wisconsin Inter-State Championships, on October 19-20 and drew a massive crowd in what was to be the final event of the season. However, when Milwaukee experienced a rare Indian summer, Metzler realized every other track in the north central part of the country was already closed…so he ran events all the way up to November 10 -- and killed ’em.