Fontana Track Adding Road Course

California Speedway, firmly entrenched as one of the country’s foremost oval race tracks, is expanding.

Plans for a permanent road course, with different configurations suitable for sports cars, motorcycles, vintage cars, testing and driving schools, were announced Tuesday at the Fontana facility by Bill Miller, speedway president. Completion is expected in early fall, with a racing schedule for 2002 in the planning stages.

Currently, there are only two regularly scheduled major racing weekends on the D-shaped, two-mile oval--a Winston Cup stock car race in the spring and a CART open-wheel champ car race in the fall.

“When the speedway was originally built in 1997, an infield test circuit was included,” Miller said. “However, the course at that time was to host driving schools and testing, not competition. The current layout is used approximately 85 days during the year, so this new course will improve an already successful rental program.”

The longest circuit, which includes portions of the oval, will be 2.8 miles, with 21 turns. For motorcycles, the course will be shortened to 2.36 miles. The test track will be 1.5 miles, with 13 turns, or 1.55 miles, with 17 turns, completely in the infield.

Miller also announced plans for a new quarter-mile drag strip, built in conjunction with the National Hot Rod Assn., for street-legal cars. The new strip, built along the southern perimeter of the 529-acre facility, will open Sept. 8-9, with additional weekend dates Sept. 22-23 and Oct. 6-7.

Since the NHRA had to scale back the number of race dates at its Pomona Fairplex drag strip because of complaints from neighboring residents, there has been no quarter-mile facility for street-legal cars to race.

“We have heard repeatedly about the increase in drag racing on our city streets and the dangers posed by this,” said Miller, who said the speedway has received positive feedback from San Bernardino County and local law enforcement about the project.

“A number of recent traffic fatalities have been linked to illegal drag racing on city streets. We hope by giving people a designated time and place, we can get them off the streets.”