In one month's time Auto GP will start the engines in Sonoma for the first North American race in its history. After an inspection carried out by Formula One race director Charlie Whiting it has been confirmed that the layout for the weekend will be the full road course, including the Carousel chicane (turn 7a), the motorcycling chicane (turn 9a) and the final hairpin (turn 11), for a total lap distance of 4.025 metres.
The selected layout will be 300 meters longer than the one used by Indycar for their race the coming weekend, and will include the recent modification at turn 9a, where the corner exit has been widened by 3 metres on drivers left in order to give competitors additional width in what was already a passing zone.
As IndyCar will race on the track just one month before Auto GP, the American round will be a good chance to understand where Auto GP stands in terms of performance when compared to the top level of USA single-seater racing, even if the difference between the two layouts will impede a direct comparison.Besides this, the Sonoma round will mark another interesting milestone as Auto GP will be the only high-power single-seater series to have ever raced at Infineon Raceway apart from IndyCar. If youre interested in more Sonoma facts, here are some: The track was built in 1968. The first official event at Sears Point Raceway was an SCCA Enduro held on Dec. 1, 1968. The first single-seater race held on the circuit was a 150-mile USAC IndyCar road race, won by Dan Gurney and with a field that included Mario Andretti, Mark Donahue and Al Unser. After that event, no major open-wheel race was held in Sonoma for 35 years. The long stop was broken by the IRL Grand Prix in 2005. The road course features 50 meters of elevation change from its highest to lowest points. The highest point at Turn 3 reaches 54 meters, while the lowest point at Turn 10 is just 4 meters high. In 2011 the raceway completed a solar installation of nearly 1,700 solar panels, which offsets approximately 41% of its energy usage.
