INFINEON RACEWAY

It is a twelve-hour drive to Sonoma from San Diego.  Crossing the bridge into Marin County the afternoon melts into evening.  Red embers smoldering in the clouds above reflect warmly on the cool gray slate of the bay beneath me.  Mossy green islands break the surface of the water and behind them the skyline of San Francisco shimmers like living crystals of quartz growing on the distant hills.  The Golden Gate is a fantasy in this light and even San Quentin looks beautiful.

As much as I enjoy the time I spend at the track when we come to Infineon the trip means so much more to me.  The length of the state rolls by the window as music fills the cabin of our Honda.  Jimi Hendrix, Sheryl Crow, Miles Davis, and Andreas Bocelli rock the world and soothe the soul.  Moods change with the music and the time passes with the landscapes blurring beyond the glass.  Dinner tonight is a rustic rigatoni – tubes of pasta, fresh veal sausage, apple-wood smoked bacon, wild mushrooms in a light cream sauce.  Served with a crisp, cool Sauvignon Blanc to sip between bites of fresh baked bread and warm pasta. 

The drive from the hotel to the track in the morning is magical as fog blankets the sloughs and valleys.  Sipping coffee in anticipation of the day ahead it is only a few minutes before I roll up to the gates of the track and sign the release forms.  This is a beautiful place with world-class facilities and a very cool racetrack.  Built in the late ‘60s on 720 acres of an old ranch nestled in the rolling hills of Sonoma County originally settled by the Sears family – thus the original name of Sears Point Raceway  - Infineon Raceway has seen its fair share of failure and success over the years.  It is healthy and strong now.  2002 saw the completion of a $60 million modernization project.  Repaving of the entire course was completed in 2003.      

Neil Hodgson calls it a “scratcher’s track” – good times come with hard work and an aggressive attack.  2.52 miles, twelve turns and nice change of elevation demand a racer think ahead.  One of the corners offering a challenge is turn 2.  As I accelerate up the hill and toward the corner the track disappears from view, turning sharply right, just beyond the crest.  I hit the apex and let the bike drift to the outside of the track careful not to accelerate too hard or too early.  The turn at the top of the hill results in a massively negative camber for a split second, clearance and traction can disappear before you know it.  If the track is wet or even just cold beware, some of the best have gone down here.

Turn 3 is a downhill left and the boxer twin’s carbon valve cover is on the curb.  Just to the outside of uphill 3A is a wrought iron gate.  I aim for it and crest the right hand corner.  Drifting wide I’m accelerating down hill again toward 4, another right.  Reggie says, “Get your business done early and drive through” indicating the necessity of braking, back shifting and body position before arriving at turn in point.  The track continues gradually downhill toward 5 and I’m hard on the gas – 2^nd, 3^rd, and into 4^th for a breath before shifting back again. Lining up with the three eucalyptus trees in distance as I leave 5 and drive up the hill I’m in 3^rd at the top.  There is a rectangular patch of pavement to the inside of the entrance to six and I clip the inside of the rectangle.  Six is the Carousel, a big, sweeping, downhill left.  It is wide and there are a hundred lines to choose from determined primarily by speed.  My modest pace allows a tight line and I accelerate off of the exit drifting wide and leaning hard left as the track goes flat and relatively straight toward seven.

Seven is a wide, flat, double-apex right.  DeVeaux has the trick here.  “You’ve got to turn your head right as far as you can and look back up the track”, he says.  This pulls me tight to the curb on the second apex and allows me to accelerate hard into the esses.  I short shift into 3^rd and clip the curbs of 8 and 8A.  I’ve done it right and it is a straight line through the series of left-right-left corners.   Nine is a right-left flick and ten is just a second or two ahead.  Ian Donald is often hanging out on the inside of this corner with a long lens so I try not to be surprised when I see him there.

From the exit of nine, through ten and down to eleven it is hard acceleration and shifting.  Eleven is a flat right that seems fairly tight with the tire wall on the outside.  Silly as it is these flat turns give me fits.  Thirteen at the ‘Streets, eleven at Laguna and here - it literally took me three trips to this place before I began to get it right.  A wall juts out onto the track at twelve.  It looks soft and it is where I aim.  An arc from the exit of eleven through twelve will point me inside as I drive hard down the “straight” toward one. Into one I call out the gears  – four, three, two and dive left between the curbs and head up the hill toward two again.

Stacy exiting turn 11

This is such a great place to play and there is so much to learn here.  With a little help from my friends it gets better with every lap.  If you’ve thought of trying your hand at Infineon Raceway but haven’t done it yet, come on!  It is 30 minutes north of the Golden Gate in the middle of the Sonoma wine country.  There are great places to eat and great things to do.  People come from all over the world to vacation here.  Why not you?  Bring your significant other for a romantic get-away and enjoy a few days of holiday time. 

Force 5 makes it doable.  Enjoy the ride!