Left Coast Racing Scene

Get your NASCAR racing tickets now!
by Dave Grayson

That’s because NASCAR’s premiere divisions are going to be making two left coast appearances,within nine days of each other, in Fontana-California and Las Vegas-Nevada. The first stop is at the California Speedway where NASCAR’s Car Of Tomorrow, COT, will be making its official debut on the speedway’s two mile, D shaped, oval. It’s anticipated that the COT is going to rise to the occasion on this high banked track and create an element of drafting similar to the restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega. That means the Auto Club 500 could turn out to be an extremely exciting race. 
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The California Speedway action gets underway on February 22nd with practice sessions and the official CAS Qualifying Day. February 23d will bring some new and excitingly different to the California Speedway: it’s the NASCAR Doubleheader. The afternoon begins with the Craftsman Truck Series running the San Bernardino County 200. Don’t be too surprised if this event turns out to be the major highlight of the weekend. The Craftsman Truck Series shines at the California Speedway and their race has produced late in the event surprises for the past three years running. Later that same day the NASCAR Nationwide Series will take the green flag for the Stater Brothers 300. A single general admission ticket will get you a grandstand seat for both races. This is actually a rather generous offer. For many years now I have been a proponent for the speedways on the NASCAR schedule to make a racing weekend a little more dollar friendly for the fans. The California Speedway’s Doubleheader is a major step in that direction.
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February 24th is the crown jewel of the California Speedway weekend with the annual running of the Auto Club 500 featuring 43 of the best teams in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. This race also has a reputation for getting both intense and exciting in the latter stages of the race. Add to that the anticipated aerodynamics from the COT on this track and you have the making for one of the best Auto Club 500’s ever.
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As always there will be considerably more than just racing at the California Speedway during this weekend. The Opportunity Fan Zone, presented by the County of San Bernardino,  will be up and running with good food, such as the Apex Restaurant presented by renowned chef Wolfgang Puck, live entertainment, interactive fan displays and of course NASCAR style shopping.
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The California Speedway will once again be presenting a wide variety of ticket options to suit every need and budget. The tickets range from affordable general admission grandstand tickets to top of the line  packages that includes watching the racing from a luxurious sky box and lodging in four star hotels. There’s also camping in the the speedway’s infield as well as the always fun amenities from the Party Zone and the Premier Club. �
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If you have some hesitations regarding a long drive to Fontana and the traffic once you get near the speedway you can always take the Metro Link. The California Speedway is one of the few motor sports facilities in the nation that has its own train station. Located behind the backstretch, passengers can take a speedway shuttle to the main grandstands and make the return trip to the train depot. The train leaves the speedway approximately one hour after the race is over. For more information on the NASCAR weekend, and all of its possible options, dial up the speedway’s official race site.�
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Once you’ve arranged your plans for Fontana then jump to the official website of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for their annual NASCAR weekend. February 29th is qualifying day, March 1st will feature the Nationwide Series and the Sam’s Town 300 and the Sprint Cup teams will take the green flag March 2nd for the UAW-Dodge 400.
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One of the sights that makes a weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway so much fun is the multi million dollar Neon Garage. The two story structure completely surrounds the garage area and provides the fans with unprecedented access to race teams and drivers as well as a birds eye view of garage activities from both the ground level and elevated vantage points. Shopping and dining are also a big part of the Neon Garage and features a large area of very unique concessions. The facility also features live entertainment. the 2008 race weekend will be highlighted by the zany antics of the famed Blue Man Group. You can also rub elbows with the seemingly famous because the Neon Garage is loaded with celebrity impersonators such as Tom Jones, Garth Brooks and of course Elvis among many others.�
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The Las Vegas Motor Speedway has a wide variety of ticket options and special packages. This is especially true of the Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty Terraces which offers outstanding vantage points around the super speedway. You can spend the entire weekend in either of these terraces for only $257. Dial up the speedway’s official website for tickets options and prices. But don’t delay because the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Las Vegas is expected to be a complete sell out as it always is.�
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WELCOME DEATH VALLEY RACEWAY.
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Coming off a period a few years ago when we repeatedly had to bid farewell to race tracks it’s refreshing to announce the opening of a new track. Death Valley Raceway will officially open its gates to spectators on the evening of February 9th. Billed as “the track your mama warned you about”, the one third mile clay oval is located in Nevada’s Amargosa Valley approximately four miles east of the California-Nevada state lines and the Death Valley National Park.�
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President, and Director of Racing Operations, Rick Van Buytene has lined up an exciting line up of racing divisions for 2008 that includes sanctioning agreements with the IMCA, California Dwarf Car Racing Association and the Southern Nevada Stock Car Association. Van Buytene has also lined up a large variety of racing divisions for this year and the race schedule indicates he plans on racing at least seven of them on each of his race dates. Those divisions include IMCA Modifieds, Super Stocks, Mini Stocks, Classic Coupes, 360 Sprints, Micro Sprints, Modified Minis, Dwarf Cars, Bomber Stocks and Factory Stocks. There are also plans to incorporate special weekends into the schedule such as the Dwarf Car Nationals which be held April 17th through the 19th.
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The new track already seems to be loaded with sky high potential. That was proven on December 29th when they held a test and tune session with astounding results. 67 race teams turned out to check out the new raceway and were observed by over 200 racing fans sitting in the bleachers. That alone suggests that the Death Valley Raceway is going to have a highly successful debut season.�
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THERE MAY BE A SLIGHT DELAY ON OUR NEW TRACK IN BAKERSFIELD
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The highly anticipated April opening of Kern County’s New Home To NASCAR, the working title of the new track in Bakersfield-California that will replace the former Mesa Marin Raceway, has apparently hit a couple of minor snags and it now appears that the first event in the soon to be racing showplace may be moved up to June. There are two basic reasons for the postponement. The first one involves mother nature and the second one involves that pesky permit process that often comes with commercial development in the state of California.
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When winter weather set in the new raceway’s asphalt was being laid. The track itself needs two more layers and the infield area needs one more layer of asphalt. Adding to the situation is the moisture from the dense fog that often envelopes western Kern County during this time of the year. The needed layers had to be postponed for approximately three weeks. By the time you read this there should be improvements in the daily weather forecasts for Bakersfield that will allow the process to resume.
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The second delay involved the four story structure above the main grandstands that will house the raceway’s concessions, rest rooms, suites and administrative offices. The rough plumbing and framing for the structure has been in place for quite some time now. However, commercial development in this state can often be difficult and a snag has developed in obtaining the needed building permits to allow the construction of the building to continue. However, in recent weeks, officials were able to obtain a needed water permit and it’s now hopeful that this is a sign that the remaining permits will follow in a short amount of time.
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Raceway President Larry Collins remains philosophical about the situation despite the fact that he cannot commit to a firm opening date until he can be assured when the construction will be completed. In a recent interview, with the “Bakersfield Californian”,Collins said that if they had to open the new track in June then that would be okay. They will just have to race more often, meaning no dark dates, and race into the month of November if necessary.
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AN UPDATE ON THE RIVERSIDE MOTOR SPORTS PARK LLC
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Slowly but surely John Condren, Chairman and CEO of the Riverside Motor Sports Park LLC (RMP), is moving forward towards making his state of the art motor sports park a reality. RMP will be located in Atwater-California on 1,200 acres and will feature facilities for every type of racing that you can name.�
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Those facilities include a seven-eighths of a mile paved oval for stock car and open wheel events as well as a 3.2 mile road course for sports cars, endurance and open wheel racing. Also included in the plans is a 5,000 foot drag strip, a half mile paved oval, with an integrated quarter mile oval, for stock cars and sprint cars and a three-eighths mile dirt oval, with an integrated one-eighth mile oval, for stock cars, motorcycles, sprint midgets and quarter midget cars. Rounding out the design plans is a three-quarter mile kart course, a one half mile course motocross and BMX racing and a one mile off road circuit.�
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RMP has also aligned themselves with some impressive contributors to the project. Rusty Wallace and Associates, as in the former NASCAR champion turned racing broadcaster, has signed on as a design consultant for the super speedway oval. This is a very good move. Wallace and associates played a huge role in the design of the Iowa Speedway which has received rave reviews from racing teams, media and fans. Also joining the RMP team is Boris Said. The road course and endurance champion, and now a NASCAR driver, will be a consultant on the three-quarter mile road course for karts. The design for the 3.2 mile road course will receive the expertise of Derek Daly a Formula One and Indianapolis 500 veteran.
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The 1,200 acre park located, in California’s Merced County, offers some impressive stats that will likely lead to the park’s overall success. This is especially true of population figures. 3.3 million people reside within a 60 mile radius of Atwater. Within a one hundred mile radius, including Sacramento and San Francisco, there are 9.1 million residents.
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However the RMP has been plagued with some situations that have caused delays on its progress although all of them seem to have workable and timely solutions. There has been five, environmentally themed, legal challenges to the park. Four of them have already been resolved in the RMP’s favor. The final challenge was the subject of a court haring back on November 26th and a final ruling on the issue is expected sometime in February. If the RMP also wins this challenge, and it is a strong possibility, then they will be free and clear to move on to phase two of the operation. If the ruling goes against the RMP then they will have to go through the process of additional environmental analysis to modify their environmental impact report that has already been approved by Merced County officials. This will naturally create a time delay in the park’s progress but the impact of those delays are expected to minimal.
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The other possible delay is a snag involving the park’s financing plans estimated to be around $250 million dollars and that snag developed due to reasons no one could have seen coming. In August of last year there was a collapse in the equity based fixed income market and the situation carried itself into the beginning of this year according to the RMP’s January newsletter. U.S. financial leaders judged the situation as being one of the worse financial crisises to hit this country in the last 100 years. In the course of just one week entire credit and investment markets completely collapsed. The RMP was reported to be in the final phase of securing its financing when the collapse started.�
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The park’s financing is being handled by the investment firm of Stone and Youngberg LLC who recently reported on an bank based offer to fund the entire project. However RMP officials felt this was somewhat of a band aid approach to the financing and not necessarily in the best interest towards maximum benefits for the park and its private investors. The RMP preferred to stick to its original plan based on a mixture of $80 million in equity and $170 million in debt investments.
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Recently the park’s finances hit a new level of security when one of the five largest banks in the world agreed to underwrite the $170 million. However the remaining $80 million in equity may be a little more time consuming because the current financial crisis has caused potential equity based investors to postpone and re-evaluate their investment plans. However the RMP’s investment team is confident that the last phase of the financing will be acquired and is reporting positive progress based on the facts that potential investment firms has an extremely high interest in the RMP’s potential and there seems to be a general sense of improvement in overall market conditions.�
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There is still plenty of optimism that the RMP will hold its official ground breaking later this year. The Riverside Motor Sports Park’s potential economic impact, as well as high quality racing, will likely make this park one of the best things that has happened in central and northern California in quite some time.