“How long until we’re all racing electric cars?”
This is a question I’ve been asked more and more lately. I think this reality is a LONG ways away and even when that day comes I feel like there will always be a way to enjoy internal-combustion powered race cars even if they're no longer allowed on the highways. After all we don’t commute on horses anymore but we still love going to the Kentucky Derby.
While waiting for my flight to take off the other day I sat and pondered the thought of a time in the distant future when gasoline is no longer produced. What if I had one last full tank of fuel to use at a track or on some twisty canyon road? Where do I want to be when I inhale that final breath of sweet high-octane race fuel fumes?
It seems like an impossible task to narrow all the roads and tracks I love into a single choice. But if I’m forced to pick, gun to my head, I’d have to pick... Sonoma Raceway.
I choose Sonoma because it has always been special to me. It’s everything I love about road course racing. Big elevation changes that follow the natural topography, camber changes galore, and virtually zero straight aways. If you turn a good lap at Sonoma you know you’ve earned it because nothing comes easy there.
So when that final day of petrol power comes that's where you’ll find me lofting the inside front tire exiting turn 3a and lighting off power slides down the hill out of turn 6 until the engine finally sputters and stalls for the last time.
Where would you spend your last tank of fuel?