FANTASY NASCAR Racin

The road course and drag strip located on the landform known as Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains in Sonoma, California. The 2.520 mile road racing course was constructed on 720 acres by Marin County owners Robert Marshall Jr., an attorney from Point Reyes, and land developer Jim Coleman of Kentfield. The two conceived of the idea of a race track while on a hunting trip. Ground was broken in August 1968 and paving of the race surface was completed in November. The first official event at Sears Point was an SCCA Enduro, held on December 1, 1968. The road course features 12 turns on a hilly course with 160 feet of total elevation change. In 1969 the track was sold to Filmways Corp., a Los Angeles-based entertainment company for $4.5 million. In May 1970 the track was closed and became a tax shelter for Filmways

after losses of $300,000 were reported. Bob Bondurant and partner Bill Benck took over management and control of the leased raceway from Parker Archer and Hugh Harn in 1974. A few years later a group calling itself Black Mountain Inc., which included Bondurant, William J. Kolb of Del Mar and Howard Meister of Newport Beach, purchased the track from Filmways for a reported $1.5 million. In 1981 Filmways regained ownership of the track after a financial dispute with Black Mountain group. Jack Williams, the 1964 NHRA top-fuel drag racing champion, Rick Betts and John Andersen purchased the track from Filmways at an auction for $800,000. The track was renamed Sears Point International Raceway. In 1985 the track was completely repaved. The NASCAR Cup Series debuted at the raceway in 1989. NASCAR ran 74 laps on the course that comprised 186 miles. At that time, they run the full track including the carousel. This race saw Rusty

Wallace win the pole and lead the first 10 laps. Ricky Rudd would bypass Wallace to lead eight circuits before Bill Elliott would move to the points for three laps. Rudd would pass Elliott with 53 laps to go and hold off Wallace to get the win. Wallace would not be denied the following year claiming the checkers. In 1995 Trans-Am and SportsCar races returned to Sears Point and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was added to the major-events schedule. Owner "Skip" Berg sold the track to O. Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. in November 1996. Major renovations began at Sears Point Raceway in 1998 with the creation of "the Chute", an 890 ft high-speed stretch. The Chute, which bypassed turns 5 and 6 (the Carousel), shortening the course to 1.949

miles. The carousel was eliminated and NASCAR ran straight from turn #4 to turn #7. Bobby Hamilton hounded Jeff Gordon the whole race, but Gordon was able to hold on for the win. It would be the first of three in a row here for Gordon; the only driver to win even two in a row. He would go on to add two additional wins here. The Chute was only used for NASCAR events such as the Toyota/Save Mart 350, and was criticized by many drivers, who prefer the full layout. NASCAR resumed running the full 2.5 mile layout from 2019-2021. In 2020 the Covid pandemic and associated quarantine rules prevented NASCAR from racing in California. In 2021 NASCAR was back and used the full course. But for 2022 the Cup cars will go back to running 'the chute', bypassing the Carousel. As of the end of 2022;

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SONOMA RACEWAY - SONOMA CA