Local Planner: Sonoma Raceway
The Sonoma Raceway, Northern California’s premier motorsports destination, is home to a 2.5 mile road course, drag strip and motorsports industrial park. The raceway property, once a 1900s working farm called Sears Point Farm, just marked its 50th year of racing in the Sonoma Valley in 2019.
The 1,600-acre facility features a challenging 12-turn, 2.52-mile road course with more than 160 feet of elevation change. The road course’s highest point — Turn 3a, 174 feet — rises next to the nearby hillside before dipping down to its lowest point — Turn 10, 14 feet. A quarter-mile drag strip, which hosted its first NHRA-sanctioned drag race in 1988, offers top fuel and funny car action with grandstand seating, a drag tower, pits and paddock.
In 1968, ground was broken on Sonoma Raceway in August with the race surface paved three months later. In 1989, NASCAR debuted in the Sonoma Valley. IndyCar racing returned in 2005 after a 35-year hiatus.
The raceway hosts more than 340 days of on-track activity each year including nationally-televised NASCAR, ARCA and NHRA races as well as events by Ferrari Challenge, SVRA and GT World Challenge America. The raceway also hosts popular programs that give the public a chance to test the track from driving experiences and schools to safe, legal, drag racing or drifting of their personal cars. See the 2022 schedule.
The track extends special military pricing for current and retired service members and veterans on event tickets and camping. Visit the website or call the ticket office (800) 870-RACE to purchase.
Sonoma Raceway is located just over 30 miles from Paradise Valley Estates at 29355 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, CA 95476, just north of the intersection at Highways 37 and 121 in southeast Sonoma County.
