More Than 800 Events Planned For Thunderhill

WILLOWS, Calif. – Thunderhill Raceway Park, a multi-use track venue located in Willows, Calif., will host more than 800 events next year by utilizing all six track surfaces at the 530-acre complex.

The busy park should easily achieve 330 event days on its three-mile track, plus another 270 track days on the two-mile road course. The 2021 season will also see 225 events on the skid pads and another 15 special events on the rally cross and dirt road course. This adds up to more than 800 events before 2021 is in the books.

“Our previous high for track surface rentals occurred in 2017 just after the new two-mile track opened,” noted Thunderhill Raceway Park CEO David Vodden. “We did 585 days on the road tracks and another 175 on the pads and other surfaces.

“Last year, in the midst of COVID-19, we hosted 489 road course events, 194 skid pad events and a handful of Rally Cross meets,” Vodden added. “We did this with half of March, all of April and some of May being closed.”

Thunderhill services the growing recreational market for motorsports by renting track surfaces to various clubs, groups, and individuals. SCCA, the National Auto Sport Ass’n, the American Federation of Motorcycles, On Grid, Speed SF, and many more users rent Thunderhill for multiple days.  About 40 percent of the activity at the property involves motorcycles. The property has also become a testing facility for a host of Silicon Valley automotive engineering and research and development companies.

The track also hosts the longest endurance auto race in the northern hemisphere, the 25-Hours of Thunderhill. It takes place the first week in December and is a joint venture between NASA and the track. The Trans-Am Series West Coast Championship is also featured at the venue.

Thunderhill shares the Northern California market for recreational motorsports with Sonoma Raceway and the legendary WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The area has always been a hot bed of road course and other sporting activities involving cars and motorcycles.

There are eight road courses in all California, including the ROVAL at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., the fate of which is unknown when that track downsizes. Buttonwillow Raceway near Bakersfield, Calif., will open a second road course this year.

Additional information is available by visiting www.thunderhill.com.