Featuring Best of Motorcycle, Open-Wheel, Sports Car and Historic Racing MONTEREY, Calif. The 2008 season at the world-renowned Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will feature the best in motorcycle, historic, sports car and, after a three-year hiatus, open-wheel racing, on the 2.238-mile Monterey Peninsula circuit. The 52nd season of racing officially kicks off May 16-18, with the new Monterey Festival of Speed, a doubleheader weekend featuring the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series on Saturday and the Champ Car World Series on Sunday. The event will mark the fourth consecutive year for Grand-Am’s Daytona Prototype and GT cars in Monterey, while the Champ Cars are returning after a three-year absence. The biggest event on the 2008 schedule the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix is set for July 18-20 and again features the prestigious MotoGP World Championship. The event attracted more than 140,000 fans in 2007. The 2008 event will include support races from the AMA Superbike Championship and, new for this year, the Red Bull Rookies Cup. The 35th Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races presented by Toyota, the premier historic race in North America, returns to the Monterey Peninsula August 15-17. Event details, including the feature for 2008, will be announced in the near future. For the second consecutive season, September will see all four classes of the AMA Superbike Championship conclude their season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the Corona AMA Superbike Finale, Sept. 27-28. The Monterey Sports Car Championships October 17-19 concludes the 2008 season in dramatic fashion with the high-tech, high-speed Le Mans prototypes and GT machines of the American Le Mans Series staging a Saturday afternoon-into-evening four-hour race. Sunday’s action features the season finale of both the SPEED World Challenge Touring and GT classes. “With the best in sports car, open wheel, motorcycling and historic racing on the 2008 schedule, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca continues its position as the premier road racing circuit in North America,” said Gill Campbell, the track’s CEO and general manager. “We are proud to enter our eighth season in partnership with Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca,” said Jim O’Sullivan, CEO & president, Mazda North American Operations. “We’re especially pleased to see the return of the Champ Car World Series, along with the Mazda powered Atlantic cars, bringing world-class open-wheel racing back to the Monterey Peninsula.” Tickets for all events except the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix go on sale in early 2008. Select 2008 Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix tickets go on sale November 1, 2007. Information is available by calling (800) 327-SECA or at www.laguna-seca.com. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2007. The world-renowned raceway has been operated since its inception by SCRAMP, a not-for-profit 501C(3) corporation. Each race season, SCRAMP donates its net proceeds to the volunteer groups that help put on the races. Last season, SCRAMP donated over $400,000 to those local charities and civic organizations.