Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Identify a speedway's target audience (hint: some wear makeup)

I've never been to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, but even non-racing fans have to admit that it's a major part of the Inland Empire. However, when I wanted to find out a simple question - how many seats does the Speedway have? - I had to dig through some other information to find it. The "Track Facts" page started with some structural information:

Structures

Buildings
230,000 concrete blocks

Fence
17 miles

Concrete
51,000 cubic yards

Steel and Rebar
370 tons

Grandstand Foundations
1,600 ea. (enough concrete to cover 10 football fields 1 foot thick)


Perhaps I'm going out on a limb here, but I get the sneaking suspicion that the Auto Club Speedway caters to guys. But luckily for me, the next item in the list is "Seating."

Seating
280,000 lbs. of aluminum


Uh, that doesn't exactly tell me what I was looking for. But dude, that's pretty cool.

After scrolling through some other structural facts, as well as some communications and facilities information (hey ladies, there's an infant care center!), I eventually got to an entire section on seating information.

Seating Information

Grandstand
Upper Level 36,030

Grandstand
Lower Level 42,490

Auto Club Speedway Club
12,530

Total Number of Disabled Seating
1,050 w/Companion

Total Grandstand Seating
92,100

Pit Lane Deluxe Corporate W/Handicapped Access
63

Skyboxes
28


So I got my answer - 92,100 not counting the special facilities. (I didn't know that racetracks had skyboxes; I guess everyone does now.)

And those 92,100 seats aren't used for just racing. The oddly named EPICENTER Twenty Ten (odd because there is a much smaller facility in Rancho Cucamonga that happens to be called the Epicenter) may not have a lot of cars, other than some sound effects in "Detroit Rock City." Featured artists include KISS, Eminem, Bush, Blink 182, Bad Religion, and Suicidal Tendencies. Not sure how well KISS' makeup will hold up in September, but the crowd will still like it.

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