Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Sheep Are Coming
Lynne Tibbet
You're going to find more than just great racing when you come to Infineon Raceway this year. We've recruited approximately 3,000 sheep and they are helping in a big way with our "Green Initiative."
The raceway already does a great job of recycling (more than 16 tons during the 2007 season!), and this idea takes being "green" even further.
Basically, the sheep are spread all over the 1,600-acre property and they have replaced lawnmowers. That's right, they keep the grass/weeds nice and trim for us. Our VP of Operations, Jere Starks, met a guy while traveling who owns Wooly Weeders, an open-range sheep herding company. A long conversation later, and we've got 3,000 sheep on our property. Shepherds, aided by herding dogs, take the sheep to different parts of the property nearly daily to help keep the landscape looking as lush as possible. The best part is it enables us to eliminate mowing, and thus help the environment in our small way. Very neat stuff!
Along those lines, not sure if you heard/read, but we had a local Santa Rosa resident, Mike Swallow, ride his electric motorcycle to victory in our Wednesday Night Drags program on March 12. It's the first time in the 20-year history of Wednesday Night Drags that an electric vehicle of any kind won its division. We guess it's another sign on the times.
If you're like us, you'll be sitting on the couch this Saturday, March 29 (5 p.m. PT, ESPN2), as history is made when the IndyCar Series kicks off its 2008 season in Homestead (Fla.). It will be the first race with the new unified series, meaning both Champ Car and IndyCar. This deal was long overdue and it's going to be great to see how open-wheel racing begins to regain the form it had more than 15-20 yeas ago. Plus, we'll all benefit when IndyCar comes to Sonoma, Aug. 22-24, for the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County. In addition to IndyCar regulars, we'll get to see talented drivers like Graham Rahal and Will Power on the road course. Great stuff.
That's it for now.
