Thunderhill Awards SCCA $250,000

San Francisco Region Properties Inc., doing business as Thunderhill Raceway Park, presented a check to their parent company San Francisco Region- Sports Car Club of America in the amount of$250,000 as a dividend operations in 2022. The presentation was made during the Saturday night social activities from at the SCCA Driving School held on the1.9-mile road course.

Chairman of the Track Board, Michael Smith did the honors along with long time Chief Executive Officer, David Vodden. On hand to receive the bounty was SFR/SCCA Regional Executive Tim Sullivan and board members Blake Tatum and Joe Briggs.

The dividend is the largest in the thirty-year history of the California road course facility that opened in 1993.The track has paid $55,000 annually to the SCCA Club adding up to over a million dollars.

“We are very pleased and fortunate to be able to present this dividend to the San Francisco Region SCCA,” noted CEO Vodden. Smith added, “The performance of the track has resulted in no debt and reserves sufficient to allow for repaving when it comes due. “We also have the ability to add new track services to make our members experience here better each time they come to Thunderhill.”

Regional Executive Sullivan thanked the team at Thunderhill for the dividend and all the hard work that has made the track facility one of the best in the nation in performance and reputation.

Thunderhill hosted close to one thousand events in 2022 on its four surfaces with 502 of those on the racetracks and the balance on the skid pads. The SCCA is scheduled to race at Thunderhill five times in 2023.

Thunderhill opened in Willows, California in October 1993 with an SCCA Regional race.

The track is celebrating its 30thanniversary while the SFR/SCCA is 75 years young this same year. Vodden is scheduled to retire from his CEO position at the end of the year. He was hired in 1988 to build and operate the Club-owned track.

 Information about the track is available at www.thunderhill.com while the SCCA Club can be reached on www.SFRSCCA.org. Call 530-934-5588 to speak to the track staff.

The year2023 is the 30th anniversary of Thunderhill Raceway Park. The track that started as a 1.9-mile single racecourse now has two tracks, one three miles long and the other two miles long. It has a big skid pad that can be divided into two smaller pads for side-by-side use and a dirt area that can be configured for all kinds of uses.

Thunderhill has no debt and a good book of business. 2023 will see a complete change over in the management team that started the project with the retirement of CEO David Vodden and the introduction of Matt Busby from Kentucky Raceway Park. Matt will be taking over the helm as the new CEO.

The San Francisco Region of the SCCA will run a majority of their race program at Thunderhill as Laguna Seca remains closed longer than expected due to construction setbacks at the legendary facility. The fate of the pro events there remains undetermined.

Sonoma Raceway will continue as a property of the Smith Family, aka Speedway Motorsports. Upgrades and repaving are in the offing at the wine-country race venue. No dates for paving are known. The NASCAR Xfinity cars will be part of their June NASCAR CUP Series weekend for the first time. Corporate rentals and higher prices will continue to push the recreational renters toward Thunderhill and Buttonwillow.

Buttonwillow will open their new racecourse on the property and experience a considerable increase in business just as Thunderhill did when their second track was opened.

Fontana will host their last two-mile NASCAR Cup race in 2023 and then begin the process of downsizing to a smaller paved oval. The LA market has not been kind to small paved ovals of a half-mile or so which makes me feel that the end result will be a mistake.

‍