Sonoma Raceway, Racing CircuitDrag Strip

Sonoma Raceway is a hilly road course set in the wine country of northern California, about an hour north of San Francisco. It opened in 1968 as Sears Point Raceway, a 2.52-mile course built on 720 acres by attorney Robert Marshall Jr and developer Jim Coleman after the idea was hatched on a hunting trip. The early decades were turbulent, with repeated changes of ownership, a temporary closure and a spell as Golden State Raceway, before stability returned in the 1980s. NASCAR arrived in 1989 when Riverside closed, and NHRA drag racing had joined the calendar two years earlier, broadening the venue's appeal. After Speedway Motorsports bought the track in 1996, a multi-year programme transformed it, including the high-speed Chute between Turns 4 and 7 and a major modernisation plan begun in 2001. The circuit ran as Infineon Raceway from 2002 until the current Sonoma Raceway name was adopted in 2012. Its layout is famous for the downhill Carousel, the demanding Esses and the tight hairpin complex near the drag strip, with several corner and chicane variants tailored to cars and motorcycles. NASCAR's Cup race, the Toyota/Save Mart 350, is the headline act, supported by the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NHRA Sonoma Nationals. The road course also welcomes GT World Challenge America, Ferrari Challenge, Trans-Am and a busy club calendar run largely by the SCCA. Over the decades it has grown from a sleepy road course into one of the busiest motorsport facilities in the United States.

Operated by: NASCAR (Speedway Motorsports LLC)