This coming Sunday, September 16, starting at 2:00 p.m., Altamont Motorsports Park is hosting a safe-driving event designed for teen drivers and their parents. The event is presented in collaboration with the Tracy chapter of the national Get Real Behind the Wheel organization, which is dedicated to promoting parent and teen driving accountability and community awareness of safe driving technologies designed to save lives. At Sunday’s event, parents and teens will be able to hear presentations, watch driving demonstrations, and take part in some behind-the-wheel experiences. A BBQ lunch, car exhibitions, and other safe-driving activities will round out the full afternoon. Tickets are $30 for adults, and teens and children will be admitted for free. Proceeds support the Mike Ucci Memorial Fund, established in Tracy following the death of the teen-aged passenger in an automobile accident. Mike Ucci’ s father Ken Ucci heads the local Get Real Behind the Wheel group.
Headlining Sunday’s event is featured speaker Bruce Murakami. Murakami is renowned as the founder and executive director of the Save Teen Driver and Get Real Behind the Wheel programs, which he founded as "the ultimate memorial" for his wife and daughter who died in a automobile accident caused by teen street racing. Murakami and the Safe Teen Driver program have received national recognition through the April 2007 Hallmark program, "Crossroads: A Story of Forgiveness," and guest appearances on TV programs such as "Oprah" and the "John Walsh Show." Joining Murakami will be Justin Cabezes, the driver in the tragic accident. The two now travel throughout the country, speaking to thousands of young drivers to promote safe driving techniques.
"Altamont Motorsports Park, its staff and owners, are committed to everything we can do to take racing off the street," said Altamont Motorsports Park President and General Manager Jeff Macey when speaking to the local Get Real Behind the Wheel group in a recent meeting at the AMP facility.
Joining Macey was John Condren, CEO of both Altamont Motorsports Park and its parent company, Riverside Motorsports Park, which is currently in development in Merced County. An experienced race car driver, Condren added, "The concept of an effective ‘I Do It Off the Streets’ program has long been part of the vision and plans for Riverside Motorsports Park. It’s gratifying to see that its inception may well be here at Altamont Motorsports Park, as we begin to work with Get Real Behind the Wheel and establish a teen driving program to serve the needs of young drivers throughout the area." Condren has pledged $1,000 from Riverside Motorsports Park to help the Tracy Get Real Behind the Wheel program get started. The check will be presented on Saturday, September 15, when Altamont Motorsports Park hosts the Get Real Behind the Wheel organization at the NASCAR Grand National race. ABOUT ALTAMONT MOTORSPORTS PARK
Located in Alameda County, between Tracy and Livermore, Calif., Altamont Motorsports Park is a NASCAR-sanctioned motorsports facility featuring a 1/2-mile, high-banked paved oval that is the only 1/2-mile paved oval between Redding and Los Angeles. The facility also features a 1/4-mile paved oval, a 1.1-mile road course, Figure 8 track, and Kart course. An operating short-track in Northern California since 1963, the facility was acquired and refurbished in 2006, by Riverside Motorsports Park, LLC of Atwater, Calif. Altamont Motorsports Park regularly features the NASCAR Whelen All-American Weekly Racing Series, USAC-CASA-BCRA sprint car competitions, and a variety of automobile, motorcycle and truck motorsports events. In 2006, Altamont Motorsports Park was awarded the Race Organizer of the Year Award by the United States Automobile Club (USAC) racing organization, and the Best Facility Improvement Award, as a Premier Short Track, by NASCAR.
ABOUT RIVERSIDE MOTORSPORTS PARK
Riverside Motorsports Park, LLC is a California company dedicated to the development of world-class motorsports and regional family recreation in Northern California. Approved in December 2006 for construction in Merced County, the 1,200-acre Riverside Motorsports Park plans to support every form of automobile, truck, motorcycle and kart racing for club-based and professional motorsports sanctioning organizations from across the United States. Plans call for eight different tracks to be located in one landscaped, park setting:
* 3.5-mile, multi-configuration road course for sports cars, endurance and open-wheel racing
* 5,000-foot drag strip
* Integrated 1/3- and 1/2-mile, banked paved oval tracks for stock cars and sprint cars
* 3/8- and 1/8-mile integrated dirt oval tracks for motorcycle, stock car, sprint and midget racing
* 3/4-mile, multi-configuration kart course for sprint and shifter karts
* 1/2-mile motocross and BMX course
* 1-mile off-road circuit
* Northern California’s first world-class oval speedway (7/8-mile) for major stock car and open-wheel racing series
