NHRA Sonoma Nationals

The 2015 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma was an IndyCar motor race held on August 30, 2015, at the Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. It was the 16th and final round of the 2015 IndyCar season and the 11th annual edition of the event. Contested over 85 laps, the race was won by Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon. Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport finished second and Charlie Kimball, Dixon's teammate, finished third. Will Power, who was fastest in two of the three pre-race practice sessions and won the pole position, was the dominant factor of the early portion of the race, leading 26 of the first 34 laps. However, Power was taken out of contention after he was hit by his Team Penske teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya, shortly before the halfway point of the race. Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Sebastián Saavedra and Tony Kanaan stayed out for multiple laps and traded the lead, but after they both pitted, Dixon maintained as much fuel as he could and scored the win. There were two caution flags for fourteen laps, and ten lead changes amongst seven drivers. With his win, Dixon earned his fourth IndyCar Drivers' Championship on account of a tiebreaker with Montoya, who finished sixth. Following a late-race spin, Graham Rahal fell from second to fourth in points. Power recovered to finish seventh in the race, and overtook third in championship standings. Hélio Castroneves, who set the fastest lap of the race, maintained fifth. Chevrolet had also won the Manufacturers' Championship over Honda.

Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway, Golden State International Raceway and Infineon Raceway) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains of Sonoma County, California. The road course features 12 turns on a hilly course with 160 ft (49 m) of total elevation change. It is host to one of the few NASCAR Cup Series races each year that are run on road courses. It has also played host to the IndyCar Series, the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series, and several other auto races and motorcycle races such as the American Federation of Motorcyclists series. Sonoma Raceway continues to host amateur, or club racing events with some open to the public. The largest such car club is the Sports Car Club of America. The track is 30 mi (48 km) north of San Francisco and Oakland. With the closure of Riverside International Raceway in Moreno Valley, California after the 1988 season, NASCAR wanted a West Coast road course event to replace it, and chose the Sears Point facility. Riverside Raceway was razed for the Moreno Valley Mall. In 2002, Sears Point Raceway was renamed after a corporate sponsor, Infineon Technologies. On March 7, 2012, it was announced that Infineon would not renew their contract for naming rights when the deal expired in May 2012.

Sears Point is a prominent landform that juts into the San Pablo Bay in Sonoma County, California, United States. This hill is the southernmost peak of the Sonoma Mountains and forms the southwestern ridge above Tolay Lake. Starting with European settlement of this area in the mid-19th century considerable modification of the Napa Sonoma Marsh began to occur, such that in contemporary times, there is considerable upland between Sears Point and San Pablo Bay. Numerous local conservation organizations are presently working to restore hundreds of acres of these historic tidal wetlands as part of the Sears Point Wetlands and Watershed Restoration Project. The region can be accessed via State Route 37 or State Route 121. Sears Point was named after Franklin Sears, who settled on 600 acres (2.4 km2) south of Sonoma in 1851. Later, he partnered with his father-in-law to purchase some 15,000 acres (61 km2), part of which is the present day racetrack, Sonoma Raceway.

Tubbs Island is an island in San Pablo Bay (an embayment of San Francisco Bay). It is in Sonoma County, California, and parts of it are managed as part of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area. Its coordinates are 38°08′59″N 122°25′27″W, and the United States Geological Survey measured its elevation as 0 ft (0 m) in 1981. It, long with Island No. 1, Island No. 2 and Green Island, are labeled on a 1902 USGS map of the area.

KDYA (1190 kHz), "Gospel 1190 The Light", is a commercial AM radio station owned by Salem Media Group and licensed to Vallejo, California, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It broadcasts an urban gospel radio format, and is Northern California's only full-time urban gospel station reaching San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Rosa and Stockton. The radio studios and offices are on Blume Drive in Richmond, California. KDYA is a daytimer, transmitting 3,000 watts, using a directional antenna. As 1190 AM is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A KEX in Portland, Oregon, and XEWK-AM in Guadalajara, KDYA must sign off at sunset to avoid interference with these stations. The transmitter site is on Noble Road in Vallejo, on San Pablo Bay.

Tolay Creek is a 12.5-mile-long (20.1 km) southward-flowing stream in southern Sonoma County, California, United States, which flows through Tolay Lake and ends in north San Pablo Bay.

On October 25, 1991, a Bell 206 carrying rock music concert promoter Bill Graham, his girlfriend Melissa Gold, and pilot Steve Kahn crashed into a transmission tower west of Vallejo, California, killing everyone on board. The cause of the accident was determined to be the pilot's intentional flight into known adverse weather conditions.

Sonoma Creek is a 33.4-mile-long (53.8 km) stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by Sonoma Creek is roughly equivalent to the wine region of Sonoma Valley, an area of about 170 square miles (440 km2). The State of California has designated the Sonoma Creek watershed as a “Critical Coastal Water Resource”. To the east of this generally rectangular watershed is the Napa River watershed, and to the west are the Petaluma River and Tolay Creek watersheds. This south flowing river drains the western slopes of the Mayacamas Range, the southern slopes of Annadel State Park and the eastern slopes of the Sonoma Mountains with intermittent winter flows in the higher tributary reaches. As the tributaries and headwaters reach the valley floor, a perennial stream cuts through scenic and valuable vineyards of Kenwood. Sonoma Creek veers west at Kenwood and cuts a gorge running parallel to Warm Springs Road, where it turns south to historic Glen Ellen, passing within one mile (1.6 kilometers) of Jack London State Historic Park and the Wolf House and thence southward paralleling Arnold Drive. In the city of Sonoma it is an urban creek which emerges into agricultural areas to the south. Finally, Sonoma Creek discharges to the vast Napa-Sonoma Marsh at the northern tip of San Pablo Bay. Principal tributaries to the creek include Yulupa Creek, Graham Creek, Calabazas Creek, Bear Creek, Schell Creek, and Fowler Creek.

Cline Cellars Winery is a family owned and operated winery located in the Carneros wine appellation of Sonoma County, California that specializes in Zinfandels, Rhône-style wines, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Wingo is a ghost town located in Sonoma County, California in the United States. It can be found on older maps as a dot along the sloughs of Sonoma Creek, south of Sonoma and Schellville, and west of Buchli.

San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a 13,190-acre (53.4 km2) National Wildlife Refuge in California established in 1970. It extends along the northern shore of San Pablo Bay, from the mouth of the Petaluma River, to Tolay Creek, Sonoma Creek, and ending at Mare Island.

The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough for most of its length. The headwaters are in the area southwest of Cotati. The flow is generally southward through Petaluma's old town, where the waterway becomes navigable, and then flows another 10 mi (16 km) through tidal marshes before emptying into the northwest corner of San Pablo Bay.