The Verizon IndyCar Series will once again run its season-ending championship event at the 2016 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma the weekend of Sept. 16-18 at Sonoma Raceway.
This will mark the second consecutive year that Sonoma Raceway will play host to the season finale, which more than likely will determine the IndyCar championship. This past August, Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon, who was third in the standings entering the Sonoma event, won the race and the tiebrebreaker with Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya to claim his fourth career IndyCar title.
“Sonoma has really become one of the ‘must-see’ events on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule over the years,” Dixon said in a statement. “The Target team has had great success there recently, and we ended the season on a high note there in 2015 with our second straight win at the track en route to the championship. I always look forward to that race and so do the hundreds of guests the team entertains there each year.”
The 2015 Sonoma race marked the first time the IndyCar finale was run on a road course. The 2016 date is three weeks later than IndyCar’s usual August visit.
“This year’s event demonstrated pretty clearly that Sonoma Raceway is an ideal venue for the Verizon IndyCar Series season finale, with a challenging circuit to contest the championship along with the unparalleled backdrop of Wine Country and the San Francisco Bay Area,” Sonoma Raceway president and general manager Steve Page, said in a statement. “We look forward to crowning IndyCar champions in Sonoma for many years to come.”
