Banning teminates Drag City agreement (1 Viewer)

Got the report about noon 2-day from an on- site witness to the meeting.

Apparently fearing an angry reaction, a female officer was dispatched to the location of one of the former Drag City principals during the hearing but there was no incident.

AFTER the hearing, my reporter, a spectator at the hearing, was heavily verbally abused by the former Drag City principal.

Maybe all this'll all blow away like the winds that CONSTANTLY blow thru Banning Pass.

Sad thing is, the design of the facility would have at least been on par with Irwindale Raceway and Perris Auto Speedway, as far as amenities were concerned.

It would have been a neat "PLACE TO RACE".
 
I don't know everything that went on but I have to say that I'm disappointed and very discusted. I understand that building a dragstrip is a big undetaking in this day and age. But I don't think this group made the most with the window of the opportunity that was open for them or even did what was required of them or had the resources to make this happen since at one point they had the city behind them which is always the biggest hurdle besides money. And what was up with a ground breaking for a track that was never to be?

I'll also blaime this fiasco on NHRA. They knew the importance of having a new Orange County style track in Southern California and they should have done everything necissary to make it happen. The Drag City folks needed some experienced help and possibly had to much pride to ask.

Of course, this wasn't the easiest group of promoters to work with either since they were reportably buying fancy motorcoaches and restoring an old Surfers dragster when they should have been dedicating every penny and once of energy to the track. I'm sure there will be plenty of derogatory comments on nitroland but this time I think it will be well earned.
 
I don't know everything that went on but I have to say that I'm disappointed and very discusted. I understand that building a dragstrip is a big undetaking in this day and age. But I don't think this group made the most with the window of the opportunity that was open for them or even did what was required of them or had the resources to make this happen since at one point they had the city behind them which is always the biggest hurdle besides money. And what was up with a ground breaking for a track that was never to be?

I'll also blaime this fiasco on NHRA. They knew the importance of having a new Orange County style track in Southern California and they should have done everything necissary to make it happen. The Drag City folks needed some experienced help and possibly had to much pride to ask.

Of course, this wasn't the easiest group of promoters to work with either since they were reportably buying fancy motorcoaches and restoring an old Surfers dragster when they should have been dedicating every penny and once of energy to the track. I'm sure there will be plenty of derogatory comments on nitroland but this time I think it will be well earned.

There probably would be at that but nitroland is no more.

REX
 
I'm glad I didn't hold my breath waiting for this to happen. We really need another 1/4 mile track here in So. Cal., but this whole deal was like waiting for the Easter Bunny to show up......
 
Since all of you have lined up to tee off on the entreprenuers, let me fire a 3 iron at you. What seems to be missing for this discussion is SoCal STILL does not have a weekly bracket program that is worth a damn. I am building a bracket dragster in hopes of running it 2-4 times a month, just like the GOOD OLD DAYS of OCIR. It seemed like Banning was our best hope. Sad we couldn't pool our collective energy to get involved and help this project through its birth. The only good thing I can see is real estate in SoCal is in the s&^^!*r and industrial buildings are standing empty in Banning and Beaumont.

If the drag racing community is looking for a real estate developer who could pull this off, contact Rock Moran Jr. and Sr. Just look what they did with a go kart track in Beaumont.

Mark Watkins
www.madscientist1.com
 
Mark,

Here's your track that will allow you to race pretty much as you described...Auto Club Dragway - California Speedway

Beyond that, there's still Famoso, Barona, Speed World, Fireturd and Vegas, all within a 3-4 hour tow. The whole concept of funding Drag City was based around selling off advertising space at the track. Many of us balked and said build it first then we'll get on board.

The whole thing was illconceived. Try California Dragway. I think you'll like it there.
 
Bill,

Thank you for the very sincere reply, but the reality is California Speedway runs a mish-mosh of specialized events and there are few opportunities to run a 9 second bracket dragster. (This weekend is a test and tune....)

I know you can never go home, but remember when you could go out to OCIR on a Wednesday night and run a bracket and watch some pretty amazing testing (I saw Russ Collins try and kill himself a couple of times....)

Mark
 
I agree with you Mark, but there was just too many things going on (or in this case, not happening) that didn't make up for all the hype. The former "entreprenuers" sure did make it sound like the second coming, but when backers started dropping like flies and no work was happening, when do you call b.s.?
I really miss LACR already. Sure it was a "pit", but Bernie was a nice guy and it was a place to race. Really, Famosa is revamped, LVMS isn't that far away and Barona is pretty nice. With the price of gas now days, travelling to race isn't cheap and having a track close by would be nice.
 
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