1980 NHRA Fallnats Video - Seattle (1 Viewer)

[Bobby Bennett]

http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/19965-classic-video-1980-nhra-fallnationals

 

[Mooseman]

All kinds of awesome!

 

[rocketman]

The folks at NHRA need to watch this and start comparing then to now and what they need to do to bring back that excitement. The show is only 2 hours long and they even show Pro Comp and the finals of all classes. I'm a little biased as I was at that race but it was a lot more exciting back then than it is today and the TV production as crude as it was compared today easily made it exciting.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH THIS! And thank you Bobby for this gem!

 

[JON]

Great stuff - thanks for posting.

What I loved ...

Lo-$ guys getting a real chance to make rounds

Header flames and cackle at idle

Dry hops!

Crowd-pleasing burnouts

Better footage in the traps.

Pro-stockers look like cars

Funny cars look great.

Drivers actually talking not just name checking sponsors

... as the saying goes ... "Nostalgia isn't what it used to be".

 

[clwill]

Agree with all the comments above. From the in-person experience to the TV broadcast, it seems like such a good time. It's hard to look at that and not think "how do we get back to some of that"?

But one thing that struck me is how, 30+ years later, the facility looks almost identical. Yes, the left-side stands are now aluminum, but everything else looks pretty much the same. In just about the same time period, the Kingdome in Seattle was constructed, used through its entire life span, torn down and replaced with dedicated football and baseball stadiums, which have been in place for over a decade. I understand that money is not easy to come by, and that making it operating a drag strip is not easy. But how many businesses haven't made any major upgrades in the last 30+ years? Tough to be successful running like that.

 

[sparky]

Yeah, time stands still at that track. It's a place I truly love but something needs to happen there to get it in to the "here and now".

For the life of me, I don't understand what the Fiorito family is waiting for. With the recent lack of new housing developments being built in the area, I don't see that as being a reason to stop moving forward with improvements.
They have been hanging their hats on that for decades.

I think it comes down to money (it always does) and their reluctance to cut loose with any of it. That place could be a premier motorsports complex. Thats right, could be.

The only thing different in those videos is the aluminum grandstands. Also the Motocross track is gone at the end of the track. Must have been in the way of all the gravel they mined out of the place for the SEA TAC 3rd runway project.

Partner up with someone if you can't handle it yourself. There has to be partners out there somewhere but for some reason that never seems to materialize.

Those videos of the Fallnats were awesome but presently it's not quite as "parklike" as Steve Evans kept saying in the broadcast. Despite the perfect piece of property it sits on. It's actually a place that has been completely neglected for the last 3 decades. And it shows. I don't get it.

 

[rocketman]

Oh I don't know, they have done some improvements already. There is more parking, a new pit area for the pro teams and new bleachers on the east side. I guess some will never be happy until they include a new look a like tower, hospitality suites and a tunnel at the head of the staging lanes. But then they would have to take down those stands that everyone loves so much.

I agree they need new restrooms but the county won't allow for a building permit so they had to remodel the old ones.

 

[clwill]

In 30 years, they've paved a little, and tossed in some new bleachers. Wow...

Leaving outside the racer's perspective (which is a whole 'nother thread), and since we're talking about the National event, I'll speak purely as a fan. I'd settle for parking where I don't worry about twisting an ankle, bathrooms and food stalls where I don't worry about getting a disease, bleachers where I don't worry about getting a splinter in my butt, and seating with enough room to not worry about the sexual orientation of the guy in front or behind me.

You want to charge $50/head, seems to me these are pretty minimal requirements.

 

[sparky]

Oh I don't know, they have done some improvements already. There is more parking, a new pit area for the pro teams and new bleachers on the east side. I guess some will never be happy until they include a new look a like tower, hospitality suites and a tunnel at the head of the staging lanes. But then they would have to take down those stands that everyone loves so much.

I agree they need new restrooms but the county won't allow for a building permit so they had to remodel the old ones.

I don't care if they add any new stuff like you mentioned. Heck, I don't even mind the sani cans if they're clean (which they are).

I just wish they would clean the place up a little so it would represent the Puget Sound area the way it should be represented. And that is a 1st rate sports community. Which we are.

It seems to be happening everywhere else in the country. Why not here? Make it into a place where people REALLY want to bring their families and spend hundreds of dollars.

It seems very apparent to me that the owners are content with the way things are now and feel no sense of urgency to make it a better fan experience. That is where the focus should be. On the fans. To maximize the experience and make them want to come back time and time again.

The new shifter cart track is right where the good parking used to be. That is not a bad thing but now for your $5 (or whatever) parking fee, you get to walk a mile to the pits. Following a dusty path, pasture like parking lot with giant rocks to trip over every 3 steps. Like I said before, time stands still out there.

I used to go there several times a year with the same group of friends. Now if I want to go to the track, I have to go alone. They are over it. Too many other ways to spend your entertainment money.

A few sportsman racers I know, race at Bremerton. It's a total dump with very few spectators. Sportsman racers, doing their thing with very few people watching. That's fine for that kind of place with that kind of racer. The truly commited Sportsman racer who do it for the love of it.

Pacific should make it so huge crowds come out for the events and want to come back again and again.

Still waiting.

 

[sparky]

In 30 years, they've paved a little, and tossed in some new bleachers. Wow...

Leaving outside the racer's perspective (which is a whole 'nother thread), and since we're talking about the National event, I'll speak purely as a fan. I'd settle for parking where I don't worry about twisting an ankle, bathrooms and food stalls where I don't worry about getting a disease, bleachers where I don't worry about getting a splinter in my butt, and seating with enough room to not worry about the sexual orientation of the guy in front or behind me.

You want to charge $50/head, seems to me these are pretty minimal requirements.

They only put the new bleachers in there because the old ones completely fell apart. They had to.

They only re-paved and re did the concrete pad because they had to. And the left lane dip is still there! With modern bedding and paving, don't you think that could have been fixed once and for all?

You're right, for 50 bucks a head, the fan deserves better. That place is a roach and it does not have to be that way.

Furthermore, there is a reason that the Sportsman racers I know rarely run there. That is probably the "whole nuther' thread" you refer to.

 

[Mr. Fix It]

Great stuff - thanks for posting.

What I loved ...

Lo-$ guys getting a real chance to make rounds

Header flames and cackle at idle

Dry hops!

Crowd-pleasing burnouts

Better footage in the traps.

Pro-stockers look like cars

Funny cars look great.

Drivers actually talking not just name checking sponsors

... as the saying goes ... "Nostalgia isn't what it used to be".

X 2 And, they still look fast even at just 250 MPH! Love those dry hops!

 

[Mooseman]

I love the fact that they were technical back then, they talked about the tech stuff in detail and they didn't dumb it down.

 

[rocketman]

I'm not trying to defend the folks that currently run it. In fact, other than the national event, their racing schedule sucks big time. Woodburn has a better schedule than they do.

I haven't been up there in two years but I know they have to fight the environmental nimrods and the county for every little improvement that they try to make. So there is likely a reason that things are the way they are. Thank King County for forcing you the race fan to use a porta potty and not a clean rest room like at Sonoma.

 

[clwill]

It's not as simple as "blame the government" (although I know that's the in-vogue thing to do). They had a wonderful master plan, the money to do it (thanks to selling all that dirt to SeaTac), AND a permit in their hands to do it. They just didn't pull the trigger. They sat on the permit for 3 years, it expired and when they went in to get it renewed the neighbors saw another chance to complain.

And you can't blame the "environmental nimrods" because they've had practically free rein environmentally there. They got a permit to pull millions of yards of dirt out of there, didn't they?

So, it's not the "environmental nimrods" or the county that's causing them problems. It's their delay and the neighbors who moved in long after the track. If the owners had worked a little community relations over the years, and had acted while the iron was hot, things would be different.

As it is, the place is dominated by the road course -- given the choice they will run road racing over drag racing any day. The road course people need little/no track prep, and -- the key difference -- they run in the rain. Our association asked to race there as often as they would let us, if they would let us do doubleheaders (Sat and Sun). We got one date, and that was just pulled in favor of a road course event. The best they can do is a Fri nite (with all the T&T idiots) and Saturday.

As far as I can tell, the only profitable part of the operation is the cart track, and that's leased, managed, and operated by someone else. And of course the national event, which they seem to do precisely the minimum amount necessary each year to prevent NHRA from pulling the plug (note the annual track problems...).

And to cap it all off... the drag strip manager just quit -- again. I believe this year will mark their fifth manager in six years. Great

 

[rocketman]

OK I stand corrected on the "environmental Nimrods" so then what was the excuse not to allow them to build new restrooms if it had nothing to do with the environment?

 

[clwill]

OK I stand corrected on the "environmental Nimrods" so then what was the excuse not to allow them to build new restrooms if it had nothing to do with the environment?

As I understand it, the county wouldn't let them simply hack up the master plan and do just part of it. They wanted them to have a new permit if they were going to do something other than the master plan. This then cranked up the neighbors, because there's a new permit to be issued, etc., etc.

At least that's what I heard.

 

[sparky]

As I understand it, the county wouldn't let them simply hack up the master plan and do just part of it. They wanted them to have a new permit if they were going to do something other than the master plan. This then cranked up the neighbors, because there's a new permit to be issued, etc., etc.

At least that's what I heard.

Sounds about right. What an embaressment to the PNW. We've got the finest sports stadiums in the world and no decent racetrack.

Oh well, after a lifetime of living in the Westsound area, it's just another reason to get out of here. Austin, Texas sounds good to me and my Wife would leave in a heartbeat. It used to be a great place to live (western WA) but now I'm not so sure.

Someone at Pacific Raceways should call Bruton Smith, Roger Penske or someone with the horsepower to make it happen or just sell the place.

 

[clwill]

Bruton Smith was here, and he got chased away. Remember the effort to put in a Nascar track up near Marysville? Then down near Chehalis? They tried and tried to work something out to put in a Nascar track and couldn't get the combination of land, freeway access, roads, etc. put together. Then of course they wanted millions in state $$ to make it all happen. But that wasn't going to happen, so they just asked for some help with the roads in/out. They couldn't get that worked out. So the deal never got done.

 

[clock guy]

Bruton Smith was here, and he got chased away. Remember the effort to put in a Nascar track up near Marysville? Then down near Chehalis? They tried and tried to work something out to put in a Nascar track and couldn't get the combination of land, freeway access, roads, etc. put together. Then of course they wanted millions in state $$ to make it all happen. But that wasn't going to happen, so they just asked for some help with the roads in/out. They couldn't get that worked out. So the deal never got done.

That was not SMI, Bruton Smith's company it was ISC the other NASCAR major player.

 

[clwill]

That was not SMI, Bruton Smith's company it was ISC the other NASCAR major player.

Oops, I knew it was three letters