Sonoma Raceway lands the NASA Championships for July 2027
The National Auto Sport Association said on November 4 that its national amateur titles will be settled at Sears Point next summer, July 15-18, 2027, thirteen years after the event last ran here.
SONOMA: The amateur road racing season now has a finish line in the Sears Point hills. The National Auto Sport Association said on November 4 that Sonoma Raceway will stage its NASA Championships Powered by Hoosier from July 15 to 18, 2027, the 21st running of an event that moves to a different circuit each year.
It is a homecoming with a long gap behind it. NASA last brought a championships meeting to this track in 2014, for its Western States edition, and no California circuit has hosted since WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 2022. The traveling format is the association's own invention in amateur racing: one weekend a year, national titles on the line, at a circuit chosen for the test it sets.
A lap that hides its corners
The full road course is the draw: 12 corners over 2.52 miles, climbing and falling through the hills in a single lap. Several corners arrive blind, over crests, and the lap ends at the Turn 11 hairpin, the slowest and tightest point on the course. Precision pays here, and mistakes are expensive.
"The NASA Championships Powered by Hoosier and Sonoma Raceway pair beautifully," said NASA CEO Jeremy Croiset. "Its 160 feet of elevation change and technical layout make it a true test for our drivers. It's the kind of place where a NASA Champion should be crowned."
The raceway's president, Brian Flynn, framed the booking as a showcase for both the circuit and the valley around it. "We're excited to welcome the NASA Championships back to Sonoma Raceway in 2027," Flynn said. "Returning to Sonoma for the first time since 2014 is a great opportunity to showcase our challenging circuit and the Sonoma Valley to competitors and their families from across the country. We look forward to hosting an outstanding weekend of racing as drivers compete for national titles at one of America's premier road courses next summer."
Thirteen months to earn a place
Qualifying for that weekend is already under way, and it is a long road by design. The 2027 meeting falls earlier in the summer than the event usually runs, so NASA opened its qualifying window on July 1, 2026, more than a year out, and closes it on July 12, 2027. Drivers can build a record across parts of two seasons.
On the racing side, a driver needs five points races, or three full race weekends, in that span. Two Time Trial points days can stand in for two of the five races, and a single race lasting at least three hours is worth two. Teams get no shortcut: every registered member of a team has to qualify on their own record.
Time Trial has its own bar in the same window: four points days. A driver entering both disciplines has to clear both bars, with one piece of help: the two Time Trial days a driver uses toward the racing total leave only two more to find for the Time Trial total.
The championships close a busy fortnight at the track, at 29355 Arnold Drive. NASCAR's Toyota/Save Mart 350 runs on the Sunday of the weekend before, July 11, and NASA's fields arrive four days later, with wine country on the doorstep for the families who travel with the teams. "Sonoma offers the kind of challenge that makes winning a NASA Championship especially meaningful," Croiset said. "We're excited to bring our competitors back and give them an opportunity to pursue a national title at this incredible venue."
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