Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

First Person/Opinion: The Changes At Sears Point

By Ed Sorbo

(Editor’s note: Recent changes at Sears Point Raceway have proven controversial, with some racers saying that the track in Sonoma, California is safer than ever and others saying it’s worse. We sent AMA 250cc Grand Prix #6 Ed Sorbo to Sears Point to see for himself. His report follows.)

In 1996 Sears Point Raceway was bought by Speedway Motorsports Inc. After about 3-1/2 years of fighting the objections raised by neighbors and jumping through hoops for Government agencies, the track got all the various approvals and work was started on a $50 million improvement project.

Last year when I raced at Sears Point with the AMA, I liked the improvements that had been completed, which included increased run-off room for turns 1, 2, 5, 6, 8 and a new turn 11. The year before, turns 3A and 4 had received the same treatment.

In 2002, work was started on a much more ambitious level, and modifications are almost complete on every part of the track that was not touched in the previous two years, including the pits and paddock.

Roadracingworld.com sent me to Sears to check out the new changes and see about the concerns expressed after the AFM held a race April 13 and 14th.

I meet with John Cardinale of Sears Point, on Thursday, April 25th. The following are my observations:

The new front straight avoids using the VHT-coated dragstrip, is located to riders’ left of the dragstrip, is about 50 feet wide and has walls on both sides. By using the AMA turn 11 we will travel straight down the front straight between the walls, not approaching them at an angle on VHT, as in the past. The possibility exists for some congestion on the start, yet with the AMA staggered grid of four bikes across, there is 12-1/2 feet of room for each bike, leaving space between each bike to allow for a stalled bike, or other problem.

View of the front straight at Sears Point, showing walls separating drag strip from road course front straight.

View of turn one (foreground) and turn nine (background) at Sears Point.

T1 is the area of biggest concern. It is a faster turn, much more sweeping than the old AMA T1. The concern here is the old bridge that crosses the racetrack at the exit of T1. The bridge abutment on riders’ right is near the edge of the track. From the edge of the track there is about 20 feet of run-off that is level with the track and then the slope of a hill begins and about halfway up is the bridge abutment. You would have to run wide, staying on your wheels and continue up the slope to hit the abutment. A temporary wall seen in some photos of the turn will be removed for the AMA race and was not in place for the AFM race. We will need Air Fence in front of the abutment and perhaps a line of haybales in front of that to knock a bike and rider down so they go into the Air Fence and not over it. The level run-off will give riders some room to save it if they run wide but if they’re headed up the hill riders will want to get off the bike. My feeling when I first saw T1 was that I had to be smart here; I will have to wait till I get on track to see how scared I might be.

View of exit of turn one and bridge abutment.

Overview of turn one.

The wall on the outside of T2 appears to have been moved back 10 more feet, from where it had been moved last year. Either way there is a good amount of room there now.

View of turn two area.

View of turn seven area.

T7 is an area of concern, and there are walls everywhere. This area is used as the pits when work is being done on the track. A temporary wall in the middle will be removed for the AMA race, but that still leaves the end of a wall on drivers’ left of the NASCAR bridge. I can’t tell if it is in line with our braking zone, but it is a good ways away. A trailer with its wall will be there for the AMA race and will need Air Fence, and it would be much better if it could be moved.

View into esses.

Esses section.

The esses section has big improvements. On the left, the hillside has been moved back quite a bit all the way to T10 and the temporary walls will be moved back to the foot of the new hillside location. An area of particular improvement is T8A, to riders’ left. When the AFM raced here, there was a temporary cement wall about 50 feet off the edge of the track, in the middle of a big open field caused by the hillside being moved back. The old configuration had the hillside come to within a few feet of the track. The bridge across T9 has been replaced by a tunnel (both the front straight bridge and the T10 bridge are now gone), so the visibility has been increased in this area of the track. There is also a wall around the outside of T9, with haybales in front. This wall is temporary and will be moved back five to 10 feet, before the AMA weekend. Moving the wall will increase the visibility around T10, yet the wall is not being moved enough to give ample run-off room. The wall is in the same basic location as before and there was never adequate runoff for T9.

Esses section in foreground, turns four and five in background.

View of carousel in background, esses in foreground.

T10 has a slightly bigger radius, making the corner easier, with increased visibility, and faster. On the other hand, with increased speed, the run-off room–which has never been adequate–has been effectively decreased.

Using the AMA T11, there is nothing to worry about, as the run-off area is huge for falling down or braking concerns. The AFM used the old T11, which has no run-off, plus the fact that AFM uses a really tight chicane after T11, to control speed through T1. I think the AMA T11 is a lot better.

View of turn 10.

View of paddock area a huge new grandstand.

Now for the asphalt improvements: T1 has new asphalt, which actually starts at the beginning of the new front straight and continues through the finish of T1. New asphalt begins again, from the exit of T4 all the way through and up to the beginning of T6. This new asphalt ends past the crest of the hill, or very near the crest of the hill. I was not able to get on the track, as it was in use, so I cannot be exact as to where it ends. More new asphalt begins again underneath the bridge that crosses T6, which is about 3/4 of the way through the turn and continues all the way onto the straight. There was a big bump where you would merge back onto the front straight, from T11 and it looks like it is now gone. The last segment of new asphalt starts at the beginning of T9 and runs through T10.

Pits and Paddock: The predominant feature in the pits now is the huge new grandstand facing the new pits, front straight and drag strip. Underneath there are four new, large restrooms, two for men and two for women, as well as a souvenir and food concession. The old scoring building has been repainted and matches the new garages that were being built last year behind the old pit road. These garages feature windows that open into the cold pit road and offer a view of the track. The old food court is gone as is the hill that was behind it, replaced with flat asphalt pit space. There is more pit space now than there was last year. The vender area will be inside of T10, not in the paddock.

Still to come: The T1 and T6 bridges will be lengthened and the T1 bridge will be moved so that it will no longer be a concern. At the same time the water treatment pond on the outside of T6 will be moved off site, allowing more run off for T6. The Armco on rider’s right in T8A will be moved back giving more run off for T8 and a better line of sight in T8A. The tenant buildings across from the 76 gas pumps will be replaced with garages and a Medical Center. The whole track will get repaved this September.

Conclusion: Since Speedway Motorsports took over, the level of risk associated with racing at Sears Point has gone down by a large amount. That risk will be less next year after the remaining changes are completed. However, there will still be parts of the track that will be dangerous during the AMA National next weekend, namely, turns 9, 10 and old 11. The need for Air Fence will not go away.

I bet the pits were nasty for the AFM race, and crowded for the Vintage race the weekend before the AMA race. The pits will be larger this year than last for the AMA race and even larger next year.

Track safety is a tough issue. On one hand safety is the only thing that matters. On the other hand it costs money, and to get the money you need a profitable track. Where do you spend your limited funds first? If you spend it all on a safe track that no one can get to with no good places to spectate from, who will pay to see your show? If you make a track that is great for the fans, but dangerous for the racers, the racers will still race and you will make money from both. Many of us have raced at Sears for years back in the day when it was a death trap; and now that it is being improved we need to include a thank you in our criticism.

We have no formula that we can give to a track builder that prescribes how much room is needed for a given corner and speed. We give confusing signals to track owners by racing at dangerous places time and again, voting with our dollars for dangerous tracks. If we make it to the time when the turn one bridge moves without killing, maiming or badly hurting anyone we will be lucky, but if someone dies we will wish that moving the bridge was put higher on the list; and we will wonder why we raced when we could all see that it was dangerous.

On the other hand, racers have crashed, and will crash in places that have been improved, and they and their bikes were hurt less than they could have been.

The conclusion: It’s better, it looks like it will get better still, and we need to make it through 2002.