Rumors have been swirling that International Speedway Corporation (ISC) is currently in talks about managing Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Mazda Raceway is a 2.238-mile 11-turn road course located in the state of California.
With the potential change, there are some who do not agree, according to Auto Blog. The track, which is currently operated by The Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula (SCRAMP), hopes to continue their control of the road course. They’re so against it that they’re asking people to contact local representatives to block the potential move. However, the county is asking to see a change in administration.
The land the track currently sits on is owned by Monterey County. Questions arose after the track lost its annual MotoGP date due to issues with low attendance. While the county is looking for new leadership for the facility, ISC is one of the current frontrunners in the selection process.
ISC manages 12 NASCAR tracks located all over the United States. The corporation was founded by Bill France in 1953.
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Yes, hear about this a couple weeks ago. First of all, Laguna Seca is an ICONIC facility. Unlike most of the road circuits in the USA, Laguna Seca (like COTA) already has everything required to put on a Cup event. Namely permanent garages, a media center & road/highway infrastructure to handle the egress of a 100K – 150K crowd fans. Other than WGI & Noma, there are only a couple of realistic choices for Nascar to expand it Cup series onto, & Laguna Seca is definitely one of them. My only concern is, for Cuppers, they might need to construct a cork-screw by-pass, because I doubt Cup cars could handle that series of turns in their present form.
Fyi – ISC is, in-essence, Nascar, since the two separate & distinct corporations share several prominent board members with the last name of France. Imsa too! Many people do no realize it, but Imsa also has several Nascar associated executives on it’s board.
So this seems very self serving. And seems to propagate the trend of road courses becoming much more popular among Nascar teams, drivers, fans & most importantly, their front office.