By alley - Sep 16, 2014, 3:18 AM ET

Behind The Zoom: Sonoma Raceway

A turn-by-turn breakdown of the Sonoma Raceway with a filled out track map, turn-by-turn description (

click here for a larger view

), and voiceover onboard footage from the BEHIND THE ZOOM team.

The National Auto Sport Association (NASA) heads to Sonoma Raceway for its Western Championship in November. But before that, NASA’s HPDE 1-4, TT, all regular NASA race groups, and PRC head to Sonoma for competition on Sept. 27-28. With the intense competition that is upon us, we turned to our BEHIND THE ZOOM team, as many of its drivers have several victories at this track. In addition to the information presented here, there will be a

BEHIND THE ZOOM: Sonoma Raceway forum

Tuesday night.

According to Mazda factory driver and IndyCar Rookie of the Year

Tristan Vautier

, who has raced and won at this famed circuit, “Sonoma is fast, but has several camber changes, making this a technical track that rewards precision. On the course the racers will compete at on Sept. 27-28, this is no exception.” For this race weekend, NASA competitors will use the traditional layout, or “long course” – the Carousel, long Turn 7 (not NASCAR 7/Jug-handle 7/7a), NASCAR 9, 10 and 11. Mazda Factory Driver and Professional Driving Coach Joel Miller also weighed in. “This layout of Sonoma will test your determination and skills. There are corners where you will need to summon your bravery and commitment.”

Click here

for Joel's driving notes.To top it off, Joel Miller and Tristan Vautier agree that there is nothing better than to review track notes and then watch video, looking for those intricacies noted. So Tristan Vautier provided his onboard video from when he set the pole lap in qualifying (lap two of two on the video) in Pro Mazda in 2011. While this is not a sports car, and the quality is not HD, he did provide a voiceover of his first lap, pausing at each corner to break it down. You will see and hear about the compressions and camber in the road, the curbs, and much more. Although Tristan drove the IndyCar Series course in this video, we are confident you will find his insights to be very valuable… and if we may say so, very impressive. Keep watching, because, as a bonus, Vautier and Miller will dissect Turns 3 and 3a.

To add another educational video, we turned to Brian Ghidinelli for his exceptional race footage (lots of passing) of the Sonoma Sprints Spec Miata race No. 2 in 2013. Enjoy....

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