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44-479: Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway , Golden State International Raceway and Infineon Raceway ) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains of Sonoma County, California . The road course features 12 turns on a hilly course with 160 ft (49 m) of total elevation change. It is host to one of the few NASCAR Cup Series races each year that are run on road courses. It has also played host to

88-636: A Stockholm, Sweden –based company with a platform for development and deployment of AI applications. Infineon acquired GaN Systems, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada , in October 2023. Infineon in 2023 acted on an expansion plan by investing EUR 5 billion into its semiconductor fab in Kulim , Kedah , Malaysia . As of 2023 Infineon was also planning to build two additional plants in Dresden for €5 billion, asking

132-402: A 440 yd (400 m) dragstrip used for NHRA drag racing events. The drag strip was originally located on part of the front straightaway of the course. Track changes completed in 2002 separated the road course from the drag strip. The Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival, an annual classic car racing event, uses the full circuit. NASCAR returned to using the full circuit in 2019 as

176-600: A Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR race were used in the softcore porn series Hotel Erotica in Season 1 Episode 3 The Fast and the Curious Infineon Technologies Infineon Technologies AG is Germany 's largest semiconductor manufacturer. The company was spun-off from Siemens AG in 1999. Infineon has about 58,600 employees in 2023 and is one of the ten largest semiconductor manufacturers worldwide. In 2023

220-472: A part of the tracks 50th anniversary. The full circuit was used in 2019 & 2021 (event was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic), but in 2022 they will return to the modified layout instead of running the original. The track was closed in 2020 because of government regulations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. All national events were removed from the schedule. The track was modified in 1998, adding

264-474: A race weekend on the original Long Grand Prix Road Course is 1:20.683, set by Allan McNish in an Audi R8 during qualifying for the 2000 Grand Prix of Sonoma . As of August 2024, the fastest official race lap records at Sonoma Raceway for different classes are listed as: Sonoma Raceway has a permanent seating capacity of 47,000. This includes the grandstands and terraces around the track. During major races, hospitality tents and other stages are erected around

308-908: Is in Warstein , Germany; Villach , Graz and Linz in Austria; Cegléd in Hungary; and Italy. It also runs R&D centers in France, Singapore, Romania , Taiwan, UK, Ukraine and India , as well as fabrication units in Malaysia , Singapore , Indonesia , China and Hungary. There is also a Shared Service Center in Porto, Portugal. Infineon is listed in the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange . In 2010, board member Klaus Wucherer

352-428: Is located just past the drag strip control tower and offers a fairly straight run to the start-finish line. It was used by INDYCAR from 2006 to 2011. Another factor in removing the hairpin is the fact that the turn is only visible from the garages or the bleachers behind the esses. This is due to grandstands built along the front straight that serve also as the drag strip's grandstands. The official FIA Grade 2 variant,

396-579: The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving , and partner Bill Benck took over management and control of the leased raceway from Parker Archer and Hugh Harn in 1974. A few years later a group calling itself Black Mountain Inc., which included Bondurant, William J. Kolb of Del Mar and Howard Meister of Newport Beach, purchased the track from Filmways for a reported $ 1.5 million. American Motorcycle Association national motocross races in

440-709: The IndyCar Series , the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series , and several other auto races and motorcycle races such as the American Federation of Motorcyclists series. Sonoma Raceway continues to host amateur, or club racing events with some open to the public. The largest such car club is the Sports Car Club of America . The track is 30 mi (48 km) north of San Francisco and Oakland . With

484-570: The International Rectifier Corporation (IR) for about US$ 3 billion, one third by cash and two-thirds by credit line. The acquisition was officially closed on January 13, 2015. In July 2016, Infineon agreed to buy the North Carolina–based company Wolfspeed from Cree Inc. for US$ 850 million in cash, although the deal was ultimately stopped due to US security concerns. In October 2016, Infineon acquired

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528-777: The Taiwanese chip designer ADMtek in 2004. In 2006, the former Memory Products division was carved out as Infineon's subsidiary Qimonda AG , of which Infineon last held a little over three-quarters. At its height Qimonda employed about 13,500 people; it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange until it filed for bankruptcy with the district court in Munich in January 2009. When Infineon sold Wireline Communications in July 2009 to Golden Gate Capital for €250 million,

572-660: The Chute , which bypassed turns 5 and 6 (the Carousel), shortening the course to 1.949 mi (3.137 km). The Chute was only used for NASCAR events such as the Toyota/Save Mart 350 , and was criticized by many drivers, who prefer the full layout. In 2001, it was replaced with the 70° turn, 4A bringing the track to its current dimensions of 1.990 mi (3.203 km). The Chute was built primarily for spectator visibility, to increase speeds, and improve competition for

616-461: The Chute have been slower than if the full configuration was used. The layout is now used as a Club circuit with options, as at the end of 2018 season, NASCAR returned to the full circuit in 2019. In 2022, NASCAR returned to the Chute layout. From 1989 to 2001, the pit road could only accommodate 34 pit stalls. So, during the Toyota/Save Mart 350 Cup Series race, some teams were required to share pit stalls while other teams were forced to pit inside

660-560: The Grand Prix layout, was used by INDYCAR from 2012 to 2018 and others. This version uses the end of the dragstrip (instead of the Keyhole) to create a Magny Cours -style hairpin that joints the drag strip to Turn 7 to open an overtaking opportunity. The circuit also modified Turn 9A (the chicane similar to Spa's new Bus Stop) by widening it by 10 ft (3.0 m) to allow for more room. A new Turn 11B has been made, moving further past

704-802: The brass ring in the world of racing, and the film was loosely based around that idea. Sonoma has been featured in many racing video games, beginning with Papyrus 's NASCAR Racing for the PC, released in 1994 and has been a frequent addition to NASCAR based games and more recently road course variations have appeared. Bill Elliott 's NASCAR Challenge included the course released in 1991. It appeared in Gran Turismo 4 , and Need For Speed ProStreet as Infineon Raceway, and more recently in Project CARS 2 and recent Forza Motorsport titles. It has also been digitally scanned and used in iRacing. Scenes from

748-460: The business with semiconductor components for efficient power management or high-frequency applications. Those find application in lighting management systems and LED lighting, power supplies for servers, PCs, notebooks and consumer electronics, custom devices for peripheral devices, game consoles, applications in medical technology, high-frequency components having a protective function for communication and tuner systems and silicon MEMS microphones. In

792-624: The center of the road course. In the following years a major $ 3 million renovation plan included VIP suites and a two-story driver's lounge/emergency medical facility. In 1995 Trans-Am and SportsCar races returned to Sears Point and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was added to the major-events schedule. Owner "Skip" Berg sold the track to O. Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. in November 1996. Major renovations began at Sears Point Raceway in 1998 with

836-648: The closure of Riverside International Raceway in Moreno Valley , California after the 1988 season, NASCAR wanted a West Coast road course event to replace it, and chose the Sears Point facility. Riverside Raceway was razed for the Moreno Valley Mall . In 2002, Sears Point Raceway was renamed after a corporate sponsor, Infineon Technologies . On March 7, 2012, it was announced that Infineon would not renew their contract for naming rights when

880-731: The company Innoluce, which has expertise in MEMS and LiDAR systems for use in autonomous cars . The MEMS lidar system can scan up to 5,000 data points a second with a range of 250 meters, with an expected unit cost of $ 250 in mass production . Infineon Technologies AG sold its RF Power Business Unit in March 2018 to Cree Inc. for €345 million. Infineon announced in June 2019 that it would acquire Cypress Semiconductors for US$ 9.4 billion. The acquisition closed on 17 April of 2020. In May 2023, Infineon acquired "tiny machine learning" company Imagimob,

924-693: The company achieved sales of €16.309 billion. Infineon markets semiconductors and systems for automotive , industrial, and multimarket sectors, as well as chip card and security products. Infineon has subsidiaries in the US in Milpitas , California, and in the Asia-Pacific region, in Singapore and Tokyo, Japan . Infineon has a number of facilities in Europe, one in Dresden . Infineon's high power segment

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968-567: The course has seen a mild resurgence, with the circuit becoming a sponsor for various events as well as hosting an increasing amount of lesser series, including the WTCC and the return of the SCCA World Challenge. The year 2012 saw the end of Infineon as the corporate sponsor, with the track being renamed Sonoma Raceway. The standard, full length road course at Sonoma Raceway is a 2.520 mi (4.056 km) 12-turn course. This course

1012-546: The creation of "the Chute", an 890 ft (270 m) high-speed stretch. The first-ever running of the American Le Mans Series took place at Sears Point in July 1999. In 2000 Sears Point Raceway gained unanimous approval from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors by a 5–0 vote to begin work on a $ 35 million Modernization Plan that included 64,000 Hillside Terrace seats, repaving of both

1056-603: The deal expired in May 2012. The 2.520 mi (4.056 km) road racing course was constructed on 720 acres (2.9 km) by Marin County owners Robert Marshall Jr., an attorney from Point Reyes, and land developer Jim Coleman of Kentfield. The two conceived of the idea of a race track while on a hunting trip. Ground was broken in August 1968 and paving of the race surface was completed in November. The first official event at Sears Point

1100-465: The disadvantages one would experience pitting on the backstretch at a short track at the time. Since the length of the auxiliary pit road was significantly shorter than the main pit road, the cars that pitted there were held from 15 to 20 seconds to make up for the time that would have been spent if the cars had traveled the entire main pit road. Pitting on Gilligan's Island had several other inconveniences. The location (the staging area for drag races)

1144-620: The drag strip tower (Motorcycle Turn 11), being lengthened by 200 ft (61 m) to create a passing zone (it is located just before the race logos painted in Turn 11), and is located where the drag strip staging area is located. During the World Touring Car races, the course used most of the Grand Prix layout except for the full Turn 11 hairpin. (136.76 km/h) NOTE: NASCAR records based on full course. (As of June 12, 2023) The fastest official all-time track record set during

1188-633: The fiscal year 2018 (ending September), sales amounted to €3,284 million for the ATV segment. The industrial division of the company (named IPC until 2023 ) includes power semiconductors and modules which are used for generation, transmission and consumption of electrical energy. Its application areas include control of electric drives for industrial applications and household appliances, modules for renewable energy production, conversion and transmission. This segment achieved sales of €1,323 million in fiscal year 2018. The division Power & Sensor Systems sums up

1232-476: The fiscal year 2018, PSS generated €2,318 million. The CSS business provides microcontrollers for mobile phone SIM cards, payment cards, security chips and chips for passports, identity cards and other official documents. Infineon delivers a significant number of chips for the new German identity card. CSS achieved €664 million in fiscal year 2018. " Infineon is the number 1 in embedded security" (IHS, 2016 – IHS Embedded Digital Security Report). Infineon bought

1276-438: The garage area. When cars dropped out of the race, their pit stalls were reassigned to cars who were sharing. Before the 1994 NASCAR race, a makeshift auxiliary pit road was constructed inside the hairpin (turn 11) nicknamed Gilligan's Island . Cars that had the nine slowest qualifying speeds were relegated to these pit stalls. Pitting in this area was considered an inconvenience and a competitive disadvantage, more so than even

1320-485: The government to subsidize it with €1 billion, financed through the €4 billion European Chips Act . It would employ 3000 people. In 2019 the following persons were in the following positions: In 2004–2005, an investigation was carried out into a DRAM price fixing conspiracy during 1999–2002 that damaged competition and raised PC prices. As a result, Samsung paid a $ 300 million fine, Hynix paid $ 185 million, Infineon $ 160 million. In October 2017, it

1364-405: The hills north of Turn 7 became popular with Bay Area fans, but were phased out by the end of the decade because of rising insurance costs. In 1981 Filmways regained ownership of the track after a financial dispute with Black Mountain group. Jack Williams, the 1964 NHRA top-fuel drag racing champion, Rick Betts and John Andersen purchased the track from Filmways at an auction for $ 800,000. The track

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1408-402: The main crew, were staged in the garage area, and would have to service the car if it required major repairs. If a team pitting on Gilligan's Island dropped out of the race, the crew was unable to pack up their supplies and prepare to leave (a common practice at other tracks) until the race was over. Before the 2002 NASCAR track renovations were completed which extended the main pit road, up to

1452-596: The property brought shop space to more than 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m) during 1987. In addition, a five-year contract was signed with the National Hot Rod Association for the California Nationals. The NASCAR Winston Cup Series debuted at the raceway in 1989. In 1994 more than $ 1 million was spent on a beautification project and construction of a 62 ft (19 m)-high, four-sided electronic lap leader board in

1496-469: The resulting company was named Lantiq . With around 1,000 employees, Lantiq was acquired by Intel for US$ 345 million in 2015. Infineon's wireless business segment was sold to Intel in January 2011 for US$ 1.4 billion, with the resulting new company named Intel Mobile Communications (IMC). IMC had approximately 3,500 employees. The smartphone modem business of IMC was acquired by Apple Inc. in 2019. In August 2014 Infineon Technologies agreed to buy

1540-509: The road course and drag strip and increased run-off around the entire track. After the turn of the millennium, Infineon Technologies bought the naming rights, and on June 22, 2002, the course was renamed Infineon Raceway. In 2006, the Grand Prix of Sonoma was transferred to the Rolex Sports Car Series, who would limit it to Daytona Prototypes only for 2007–2008 before the event was discontinued altogether. Since 2010, however,

1584-557: The start-finish straight, which removed the need for Gilligan's Island and it has not reappeared in any NASCAR race at the track since. Variations of Sonoma's circuits are often used. Motorcycles use a 2.320 mi (3.734 km), 12-turn course. It is based on the full layout, and does not include the Chute. This layout, opened in 2003, skips the later section of the Esses (8A and 9) and the run from Turn 10 to Turn 11 (the hairpin), using instead Turn 11a as Turn 11 has no runoff. This hairpin

1628-420: The stock cars, which are not necessarily groomed well for road course racing. However, it has been criticized for taking away a primary passing point, and some INDYCAR drivers believe eliminating the Chute and replacing it with a new hairpin at Turn 4A, then rejoining the track at Turn 5, would create a circuit with three passing zones (Turn 4, Turn 7, and Turn 11). Furthermore, the speeds of the current layout with

1672-514: The track, which brings the total capacity up to 102,000 seats. The facility underwent a major expansion in 2004 which resulted in 64,000 hillside seats, 10,000 permanent grandstand seats, a wastewater treatment facility, 100 acres (40 ha) of restored wetlands, permanent garages, new retail space, a go-kart track and a new drag strip. In the 1970 motorcycle road racing film Little Fauss and Big Halsy , starring Michael J. Pollard and Robert Redford , Redford's character, Halsy, saw Sears Point as

1716-410: Was an SCCA Enduro, held on December 1, 1968. In 1969 the track was sold to Filmways Corp. , a Los Angeles-based entertainment company for $ 4.5 million. In May 1970 the track was closed and became a tax shelter for Filmways after losses of $ 300,000 were reported. Hugh Harn of Belvedere and Parker Archer of Napa arranged to lease the track from Filmways in 1973. Bob Bondurant , owner and operator of

1760-651: Was elected to step into the chairman's office upon the retirement of the then-current chairman Max Dietrich Kley following a proxy contest in advance of the shareholders' meeting. In 2023, it was Germany's largest chip manufacturer. As of 2011, Infineon comprised four business areas after several restructurings: Infineon provides semiconductor products for use in powertrains (engine and transmission control), comfort electronics (e.g., steering, shock absorbers , air conditioning ), as well as in safety systems ( ABS , airbags , ESP ). The product portfolio includes microcontrollers , power semiconductors and sensors . In

1804-433: Was landlocked by the race course, and crew members were unable to leave once the race began. Teams sent only the primary pit crew to Gilligan's Island , and once they were there, they could not access the garage area or their transporters to collect spare parts/tools. The only repairs that could be made were routine tire changes and refueling, as well as only minor repairs. Other auxiliary pit crew members, who were not part of

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1848-576: Was renamed Sears Point International Raceway. In 1985 the track was completely repaved, in part with funds donated from the "Pave the Point" fund raising campaign. The first shop spaces (buildings A, B, C, and D in the main paddock area) were built. In 1986 Harvey "Skip" Berg of Tiburon, CA took control of the track and became a major stockholder in Brenda Raceway Corp., which controlled the track until 1996. Additional buildings constructed on

1892-573: Was reported that a flaw, dubbed ROCA, in a code library developed by Infineon, which had been in widespread use in security products such as smartcards and TPMs , enabled private keys to be inferred from public keys . As a result, all systems depending upon the privacy of such keys were vulnerable to compromise, such as identity theft or spoofing. Affected systems include 750,000 Estonian national ID cards , 300,000 Slovak national ID cards , and computers that use Microsoft BitLocker drive encryption in conjunction with an affected TPM. Microsoft released

1936-409: Was utilized by all competition through 1997. Most races, including the Grand Prix of Sonoma, use the full course. The course is noted for turns two and three, which are negative-camber ("off-camber") turns , with the inside of the turn higher than the outside. This provides a challenge for the driver, as turn two would normally have the drivers moving to the left side of the track. The raceway also has

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