Sonoma Raceway's Spokesman Cardinale Dies of Cancer

By Bay City News Service

Sonoma Raceway spokesman John Cardinale has died of gastric cancer, the raceway's director of marketing and community relations Diana Brennan said this morning.

Cardinale, 47, died at his Martinez home after a two-year battle with the disease, Brennan said. He is survived by his wife Andrea and two daughters.

"There is a hole in the heart of the organization," Steve Page, the raceway's president and general manager said in a statement this morning.

"John Cardinale was as true a friend, as loyal a colleague, as devoted a husband and father and as fine a human being as you could ever hope to know," Page said.

"John has been a part of every good thing that has happened at this track over the last 15 years. We are all so fortunate to have had him in our lives and to have shared in his intelligence, his wit, his integrity and his brave spirit. He will be incredibly missed," Page said.

A memorial will be held at the raceway at a date yet to be determined, Brennan said. Donations to a memorial fund in Cardinale's honor may be sent to the John Cardinale Memorial Fund, care of Sonoma Raceway, 29355 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, Calif. 95476.