Englishtown (1 Viewer)

[Cliff]

When we found out that Lions Drag Strip was gonna close in 1972, I got involved with distributing flyers to speed shops and the like in my area. Trying to save Lions. Found out what the term means "you can't fight city hall". Noise was one of the problems, but it was basically that the Harbor Commission wanted it closed. For years the place was empty and they eventually used it as a storage area. When the track was built by Mickey Thompson in 1955, it was in the middle of nowhere. By 1972, population was crowding in. That story has been repeated in all parts of the country. Englishtown the latest example. ARGH It would be crazy to even try to build a new track in Calif. That state is anti car, anti racing, etc etc. Treasure what tracks are left there, cuz you don't know how long they will last. Not putting down anyone from Calif, cuz I was born & raised there, but am glad I don't live there anymore.

 

[HEMI6point1]

It's a good thing that Gainseville is located out in the middle of nowhere. There is literately just some run down trailer homes near the track.

 

[MHayes]

It just amazes me how people can buy a house, believe everything the salesperson tells them and do ZERO research about the area they want to move to. As a friend once told me, "Real estate agents are just used care salespeople that failed." Now to answer your question, If they have those things, good for them. But where they lose me is when they try to use said accomplishments to bully the town in catering to their every beck and call. Which is very likely what happened here.

PS.... internet chatter is that street racing is now on the rise in the area (to the surprise of no one). If I was the police chief, I would intentionally look the other way. If the residents complained I would tell them, "sorry but you wanted this by complaining about the noise until you got their track shut down. Go pound sand."

When you know you are talking to a brick wall, sometimes it's not even worth responding.......I'm sure that Breznay, Seibel and yourself could have a very intelligent conversation about life, LOL!

Let the ignorant "disagree"

 

[Jim]

Before we totally re-write history: the Napps made a big $$$$ deal to sell the track (or rent it, I guess). Most betting people woulda' thought the noise-nannies would have been the death blow but, not the case.
I'm sure plenty of the locals were THRILLED to see the dragstrip shut down.
BTW: Some months ago, I saw a picture of the strip and there didn't appear to be one insurance recovery car there. Did they EVER use it for the stated purpose? More important, did the family get the rental money?

 

[ironpony]

I have had a couple of similar situations in my lifetime. I am a contractor, I was contracted to build an aircraft hangar at the local airport. In the course of developing the site the nieghbors started inquiring as to what the hangar was for, I replied it is for a corporate jet for a local company. Boy did the chit hit the fan. I had to deal with these people for the next 6 months or so.
I found a picture of when the airport was built, there were no houses within a mile of the airport. So all the homes were built next to an existing airport. I would show the picture to people and ask what did you expect when you bought a house next to the airport. The pilot hung the picture in the lobby and whenever someone would come in to complain about noise he would direct them to the picture.
I live 1 mile from National Trail, I knew it was there when I bought, I also live next door to the fire department, I deal with it.
I grew up 2 blocks from the railway and inline with the flight path of the airport, I dealt with it.
The track I raced at was shut down on Long Island because of development.

 

[Jack]

The owners of E Town fought a long and I'm sure expensive battle over many years to keep the drag racing part of the complex open. They built the "great wall of Englishtown " some years back to help abate the noise factor and from all that I heard, the lawsuits I'm sure were numerous.and expensive to defend. I'm most disspointed that drag racing at this historic track is no more but I'll bet there are probably things that went into the final decision that people outside of the family will never know about

 

[nedannouncer]

The owners of E Town fought a long and I'm sure expensive battle over many years to keep the drag racing part of the complex open. They built the "great wall of Englishtown " some years back to help abate the noise factor and from all that I heard, the lawsuits I'm sure were numerous.and expensive to defend. I'm most disspointed that drag racing at this historic track is no more but I'll bet there are probably things that went into the final decision that people outside of the family will never know about

They got offered a massive amount of money. More than the place would make if they sold it out every day of the year for a decade. It's crummy and it is sad to not be racing there but there's not a logically thinking human being that would turn down the deal they were offered.

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

they are doing there best to make life miserable racing at seattle. from what i understand, it will not be possible to build another dragstrip in the northwest market. spokane / boise / woodburn are too far to draw the seattle crowd even if they could hold a national event. so this entire corner of the country could be without a national event fast. do you have any clue how much money the fiorito family could make selling that property for new homes?? the longer the family can hold on to it as a racetrack, the more that property is worth by the hour for new homes for there family in the future, as a huge investment that will create income for generations to come in there family. if you owned that parking lot, you could charge cars to park on it 3 days per year or build new homes on it and make SERIOUS money. think about it.

 

[FABMAN]

KCIR closed because of noise but said they would consider zoning on new land if investors wished to build new facility. Closed track still there in flood plain nothing can be built not even sports facility that was planned. Total waist just like all government city, state, federal entities run by ignorance. All land offered priced to high for facility to be rebuilt, hopefully I70 Speedway works out. The problem cities have now tracks are so far away that kids are going back to street racing. Use to have High School Drags a lot at KCIR and it really help on stopping street racing.

 

[Jack]

Brian - Agreed the amount of money they received made it an easy final decision to make. But having 40 years of history going to this facility and knowing many folks who raced there, unless I got a lot of bad information the battle with the neighbors went on for a long, long time and ghe courts were also involved. The offer they got to end it was too good to pass up. By the way, absolutely loving your work on the broadcast,. Your knowledge and on air presentation is first rate. Congratulations!

 

[SundayNiagara]

I was told when the Napp's pulled the plug, it was a family disagreement.

 

[Notch1320]

Breznay is correct, I worked full-time at E'Town for over 20 years, and trust me I know, the reason they shut the track down wasn't noise complaints. Reason is that, and I quote, "There are too many Napps and they all want a piece of the pie" The Scott Kalitta & Neal Parker lawsuits drained their war chest and instead of dealing with all the problems of running a drag strip that wasn't profitable most of the time they decided to lease out the property and transform the "arena" part of the drag strip into an outdoor venue for concerts, monster trucks and other events that make $$$. Another factor was they were also tired of dealing with the new regime at NHRA. They exercised their opt-out option on the contract for the Summernationals after NHRA pissed then off with the new contract they offered up with less money for the track.

One more thing, the Napp brothers & cousins & in-laws don't have the passion for the sport that Vinnie & Richard did so the decision was easy for them.

 

[TK]

^^ WOW ! Sounds like the real story. Thank you, Bob

 

[mick]

this story should become an episode of 'american greed'

 

[Stealth]

This latest turn of events is confusing. I still get the E'Town emails. Tomorrow they start their " Ratchet Fridays - Party and Carmeet " open to bikes and cars.
They are planning on running the Spring & Fall Swap Meets and the September Diesel Truck Show. They would use the drag strip for show car parking. Now what ?

I live in North Jersey and E'Town would be my local track while growing up since the late 70's. It was only 50 miles away for me.
Over the years, the Napp Family did a great job. I saw countless shows like the Match Race Madness, Coca Cola Cavalcade of Stars, SummerNats, and Jet Cars.
The most exciting was to see the West Coast cars touring back east. Tommy Ivo, Johnny Loper, Shady Glenn, Over The Hill Gang.
I saw over-the-top Match Races with the likes of Garlits, Shirley, Beck, Gwynn, Jungle Jim, Burgin, and Blue Max.
Since last year, the rumors of someone stepping in to purchase it just fizzled out. Now it is being dismantled, how sad.

To Bob D. - I attended almost all of the famous Funny Car Reunions held every year in July.
The last two they held in maybe 2015 & 2016, you could tell that the current Napp family had no more passion for the event that Vinnie developed and loved.
The booked in Funny Cars did not even run down the strip. They were just for static show in the pits. One driver told me they were not getting paid for it.

 

[Notch1320]

To Bob D. - I attended almost all of the famous Funny Car Reunions held every year in July.
The last two they held in maybe 2015 & 2016, you could tell that the current Napp family had no more passion for the event that Vinnie developed and loved.
The booked in Funny Cars did not even run down the strip. They were just for static show in the pits. One driver told me they were not getting paid for it.

Vinnie Napp had passed away before the FCR. Vinnie started the Old time Drags beck in the 70s and Steve Bell & I came up with the idea for the Funny Car Reunion in 2002. We did it for two years (2002 & 2003) until the Napps decided they wanted to take over the event and it went downhill from there.

 

[Cliff]

San Fernando Drags closed in 1969. Went there for a race, next week the gates were locked. Same thing the week after. Years later I found out that Harry Hibler had made a deal with (I think) state DOT, who needed a place to put dirt. So they covered up the drag strip with tons of dirt & that was that. I will say that Fernando had a noise issue & the last few years, could only run open exhaust from Noon to 3 PM. Yet they ran T/F and T/G and ET racing in that 3 hours. If you were running ET you had to close the headers and run mufflers after 3 PM. I used to race my POJ '58 Ford in the slow bracket, & it was hard to put a dial on the window, cuz I'd loose 3 or 4 tenths closing the exhaust.

 

[nedannouncer]

Let's not convict the innocent here. Harry Hibler was the track manager at San Fernando, Fritz Burns and Bill Hannon were the owners and THEY made the deal to accept the highway project fill.

 

[mgty3whlr]

One good memory was that Jr. Dragsters wouldn't have happened if it weren't from Mr. Napp.

 

[Cliff]

Let's not convict the innocent here. Harry Hibler was the track manager at San Fernando, Fritz Burns and Bill Hannon were the owners and THEY made the deal to accept the highway project fill.

Brian, not convicting Harry. He was always a friend of the racers & raced himself (Hang Grenade Harry in T/F). The only thing was that there was never an announcement that the track was closing, so we were all in the dark. I just never knew why the track had closed until years later. By the way, I never knew that Burns & Hannon owned the track. Guess I though Hibler was the owner. Thanks for the info on that. I dunno, I think the track would have closed anyway, just cuz of the noise issue.