NASCAR fans get ready for a sociable weekend at Sonoma Raceway

Shelly Mathews asked her kids to check the dryer Thursday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway.

“Is the laundry done?” she wanted to know.

Outside, a breeze off San Pablo Bay made the bright, 84-degree day more tolerable than meteorological warnings of a sizzler had indicated for moving-in day at the Sears Point racetrack.

Inside their 43-foot motor home, the Mathews family had all the comforts of home: three beds, two baths, air conditioning, washer and dryer, big-screen television, gas fireplace, gleaming floors and paneling.

In all, there were 18 members of four families from Corona in a compound framed by three motor homes worth more than $1 million combined in the flat, treeless 50 Acre Campground across Highway 121 from the raceway.

“It’s the NASCAR family - it’s a party,” Joe Bryant declared, standing amid an array of ice chests, barbecues, griddles, a game table and an inflatable swimming pool still awaiting water.

They are part of a throng of nearly4,600 race fans - equal to more than half the population of Cloverdale - staying for the weekend at the raceway’s five sold-out campgrounds.

Tens of thousands of more people will buy tickets, but the raceway does not release attendance figures, spokeswoman Jen Imbimbo said.

Sunday is the main event, the Toyota/Save Mart 350, the first road course race in NASCAR’s Monster Energy Cup Series, featuring 110 laps on around the 10-turn, 1.99-mile course that slithers like an asphalt serpent over the southern Sonoma County hills.

It’s considered the county’s largest sporting event, and likely the biggest social event of the year, and certainly the loudest with 38 high-powered stock cars running without mufflers.

Folks come with all the supplies, food and especially beverages they will need for the duration.

“The only problem is keeping ice,” said Ram Bryant, Joe’s brother, who figures they brought 13 cases of beer and a “whole bunch” of hard liquor.

“I want to watch them get crazy,” said Wyatt Mathews, 13, the youngest member of the clan who’s attending his third Sonoma race. He’s rooting for Kevin Harvick, currently fourth in NASCAR point standings.

His mother is pulling for Martin Truex Jr., second in the standings.

American flags and NASCAR banners flapped on poles above many of the motor homes and RVs packed onto the dry grasslands of the 50 Acre lot.

The folks from Corona made an unabashed political statement, marking their site with two signs reading: “Hillary for Prison 2016.”

A wooden carving of President Donald Trump rode to Sonoma in the Mathews’ motor home, strapped into its own seat.

Gary and Jeanne Anderson of Orangevale, a Sacramento suburb, had a bird’s-eye view of the race course and far beyond from the Trackside RV Terraces cut into the hills above the raceway’s west side.

As serious NASCAR fans, the couple has attended the Sonoma event for more than 20 years and are at home there.

“We know all the people above us,” Gary Anderson said. “It’s like a little town.”

At night, the view is spectacular, with the lights of Sonoma, Napa and Vallejo in the distance. Jeanne regularly get up early to catch the sunrise over the hills to the east.

Late Thursday morning, Gary was busy leveling their 30-foot trailer, towed by a Dodge Ram 2500 pickup. They brought misters and an ice chest full of cold water, but said Thursday’s heat wasn’t a problem.

The Terraces are a comparatively laid-back area, she said, where folks turn in fairly early at night, about 9 or 10 p.m. for the Andersons. The 50 Acres, Jeanne said, are “where the hard partiers go.”

Down at 50 Acres, Annette Sproule of Newark was setting up an unusually modest campsite amid the growing mass of RVs, trailers and motor homes.

Next to her fully packed Ford Explorer, Sproule pitched an eight-person lightweight tent that cost $109, nearly filled by her queen-size inflatable mattress.

“Everybody thinks I’m crazy,” said Sproule, who operates a housecleaning business. “Me, myself and I. I do what I want to do, when I do it and I’m happy with that.”

She’s not lacking for comfort, with two portable sun shades, three tables and a screened enclosure for cooking.

Sproule has been coming to races at Sonoma for more than ?30 years, and said she worked at a Fremont drag strip as a teenager, later racing cars on dirt tracks.

Among her NASCAR mementos, she said, are a jacket she was given by the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., who won his only NASCAR road-course race at Sonoma in 1995, and a coffee table made from a tire used by Mario Andretti at what’s now called Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is retiring from racing this year, is a sentimental favorite for many fans this weekend, making his 18th and final appearance at Sonoma.

Meanwhile, Friday night is the big party night at the raceway, when all the campers have arrived and are getting revved up for the weekend’s action.

“We take it a little easy on Saturday night,” Ram Bryant said. “We want to be able to enjoy the race.”

Many campers wait until Monday to depart, and Sproule said she’s among the last to leave.