Raceway Names in USA vs elsewhere

[HotRodKing]

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and the two most famous tracks I have known all my life are Infineon Raceway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Of course, these are the proper names given to the tracks nowadays, but I remember when they were called Sears Point Raceway and simply Laguna Seca Raceway.

Obviously these tracks have been sponsored and I totally understand why a track would rename itself like this, but something I have always wondered about is if most major tracks around the world are also sponsored.

Consider the Nurburgring. I know Zurich does a lot of advertising there, but is the track really called the Zurich Nurburgring and most people just leave out "Zurich" when talking about it like they do with Laguna Seca?

I've just noticed a lot of raceways with sponsor names in America and not so much in Europe for example. Is sponsoring a track an American thing to do or is it very common around the world?

 

[Aldo]

In before someone says 'Simply Sausages Donington Park Circuit'...

 

[nitrorocks]

I think Zurich just sponsors the VLN series

 

[Ardius]

Er, A1 Ring..I mean Red Bull Ring......
It happens in Europe too, just its less frequent. They even name corners after sponsors such as on the Nurburgring GP circuit. 👎

I wish they would just stick with an original, non-sponsor related name and tag the sponsor on in front or something so we can at least have a consistent name.

Most of us refer to tracks by their ordinary names and leave out sponsors. But it becomes difficult it seems for people to do the same with teams - this gets confusing as quite a lot teams change owners or sponsors quite regularly.
E.g. In the BTCC we have Motorbase who run under the name "Airwaves Racing" after their sponsor. Some people refer to them as Airwaves but what happens when the sponsor leaves? It then gets a little confusing as people think of them as a new team when nothing has changed! Or even look at the Enstone team in F1 - Toleman/Benetton/Renault/Lotus.....they really should just create their own team name.

 

[Sam48]

Well, my nearest race track, Watkins Glen International, has always been called "Watkins Glen International". From the days of Can-Am, through its F1 era, and now as it hosts Grand Am and NASCAR. It never took a sponsor. Of course, then again, it's owned by the same people who own Daytona. And Daytona has never changed its name either.