Auto Club Speedway proposed a multimillion-dollar revamp of the Fontana track to foster closer racing and boost crowds at its two annual NASCAR Sprint Cup races, but the track’s owner has taken no action on the plan. The plan called for raising the banking of the track’s four turns to 23 degrees from the current 14 degrees and narrowing its width in certain sections, all to bring the cars closer together and promote more passing, according to motor racing sources familiar with the proposal who agreed to speak on the condition that they not be identified. Making the changes probably would cost $23 million to $30 million and could be completed between the track’s two NASCAR race dates, and would involve digging up the entire turns to make their banking steeper, they said. The 565-acre Auto Club Speedway, formerly called California Speedway, is 50 miles east of Los Angeles and holds its next NASCAR Sprint Cup race Oct. 11. Its other race is in February. After this year’s February race, Auto Club Speedway President Gillian Zucker proposed the reconstruction plan to the track’s owner, International Speedway Corp., the sources said. But International Speedway’s board of directors has taken no action on the idea, including at a meeting last month, largely because the project is too costly at a time when the company, which owns or operates 13 tracks, is struggling with the weak economy and slumping attendance, the sources said. Zucker declined to confirm or deny the proposal. But she said in a statement that “it’s no secret that making Auto Club Speedway the most competitive NASCAR track on the circuit is something I have been advocating since I arrived here four years ago.” International Speedway spokesman Lenny Santiago also declined to comment on the plan but said “potential projects are discussed internally on a regular basis for all of our facilities.”(Los Angeles Times)(10-1-2009)
