A year after providing its Gigabit + broadband service to Iowa Speedway, Mediacom Business has been tapped to extend its WiFi network to the sports venue, allowing racegoers and news media to post live comments, pictures and videos during races as well as accessing mobile apps to enhance the racing experience.

“We’re fortunate that Iowa Speedway is a source for testing innovative platforms like this,” said Iowa Speedway president Jimmy Small in a statement. “We are building on our successful strategic relationship with Mediacom Business in bringing high-capacity broadband to Iowa Speedway, among the best connected tracks in the business. Our Newton Club members will be the first to enjoy this new service during Wide Opening Weekend June 18-19.”

The WiFi connection will allow attendees in the Newton Club to access NASCAR and INDYCAR mobile apps with features such as live leaderboards, real-time track position and driver telemetry, driver audio, in-car cameras and highlights.

WiFi service for both indoor and outdoor sections of the Newton Club is enabled by the Cisco Meraki business solution.

“Meraki provides powerful WiFi, security and networking capabilities that work immediately out-of-the-box and still allow for easy customization via the web,” Mediacom Business, senior vice president Dan Templin said in a statement. “We’re excited to leverage this proven technology to expand on the race fan experience at the Iowa Speedway.”

Iowa Speedway and Mediacom Business agreed to a renewed partnership that will help the motorsports facility better address growing bandwidth demand, onsite high speed Internet in the Mediacom Media Center and high-definition video powered by Mediacom Business, according to the provider.

Iowa Speedway president Jimmy Small said in a release: “Mediacom Business was the right partner for this complex project, supporting a seamless network migration without any disruptions or loss in vital services. Our strategic relationship with Mediacom Business continues to grow – largely as a result of their deep understanding of advanced broadband networking backed by a robust, dedicated Internet connection provided by Mediacom Business.”

Dan Templin, SVP of Mediacom Business, said in the release "we’ll have experienced, local technicians on hand before and during races to ensure maximum connectivity to our network by members of the media. Iowa Speedway is a race venue known for being the ‘fastest short track on the planet’, and Mediacom Business is known for our hyper-fast broadband connections. It’s a perfect partnership which brings unprecedented advanced broadband, voice and video services to Iowa Speedway over our extensive fiber optic network.”

NASCAR-owned Iowa Speedway is the first-ever driver designed speedway. The Rusty Wallace designed track offers 7/8 mile tri-oval racing with 12-13-14 degree compound banking in the turns and covers 600 acres of land. The tri-oval is 60 feet wide and includes a 20 foot apron. The facility also features six other track configurations including a 1.3 mile road course designed by Alan Wilson that can be run two different ways with more than nine turns, the companies said in the release.

Photo caption: "IowaSpeedwayJune2007" by Matt Owen - Flickr. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.