Going to Seattle- first time (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter I was NITRO BREATH
- Start date
Gone Dead Train
Nitro Member
And only 15 Fuel Floppers for us, in Seattle. John is still on the entry list. Only 13 floppers so far for Brainerd.
mick
Nitro Member
i'm hoping, according to what was mentioned in article the other day, that JFR puts someone else in john's car to run final 8 races
beginning at brainerd. plus b. alexander who is not currently on list.
We spent 2 weeks in Seattle in 2005 or 2006. The first week was a club national car show and the next was the NHRA race. Took a day trip to Vancouver and what a beautiful place. There was a Mater meeting @ the race and that's where I met Joe Sherwood? There is a great restaurant near SeaTac that has the absolute best chicken parmesan. I highly recommend it . I got nervous when eating there seeing some pilots drinking there.
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mick
Nitro Member
j. wyatt now on BIR list. if JFR brings back john's car at that race, BIR should have full nitro fields
z28
Nitro Member
that makes 15 with John's replacement
z28
Nitro Member
Blake is only 34 ahead of Paul Lee so he needs to be there to stay #10 if possible
LoPony
Nitro Member
Barry, did you see any cool/unique or regional food offerings in the pits at Seattle? Always a favorite thing of mine at national events.
Slowpoke96z28
Nitro Member
Did u have fun?
Chili
Nitro Member
I think Travis is but his car is out in Indiana. Same with Krista Baldwin.
robinjackson
Nitro Member
It’s 4.30am UK time on my first morning back from Seattle and I’m awake and buzzing thanks to the 8-hour time difference. Sleep will come later, for sure.
It was a great race and in a location – hidden away among the fir forests – the likes of which I hadn’t experienced before. While much of USA was suffering roasting temperatures and flooding rains, the Pacific Northwest’s weather was beautiful. The air on Friday night and on Sunday’s cooled-down morning delivered great performances. Sunday’s unexpected splash of rain delayed the schedule but it scarcely showed, at least on the ground.
Driving up the 18 from Auburn, there’s a standard road sign, “Green River College / Pacific Raceways next right”, but you’d never have known there was an event taking place. No advertising, no traffic backup. I had glimpsed one local TV ad earlier in the week. Thursday night’s pre-race gathering at Auburn’s Outlet Center produced a great turnout of local hot rodders but I’m not sure how many ‘ordinary folk’ showed up to meet Tony Stewart and his fellows at the autograph session.
The track’s management spent a fortune importing Musco lighting for Friday’s 9.15pm Pro qualifying session and the result was spectacular. But where were the fans in the stands? On the ground, you are conscious of plenty of people milling around everywhere – and there was a broad age range, not all oldsters like me – but half-empty stands spell out an instant message to the TV audience. It’s still the best show in motorsports for the people at the track and enjoys success as a b2b model for the sponsors involved, but what instant impression do casual viewers and potential supporters carry away from the TV background view? During the Sunday delay, the Sunoco Vision screen showed footage of Michael Brotherton’s Seattle TF win in 1992 and, from a glimpse, the spectator-side stands appeared full to the brim, especially the very tall one.
So here’s the modern conundrum: what do you do to refill those spectator stands that once were filled but no longer are?
And once upon a time, didn’t fans use to stick around for the finals?
It was a great race and in a location – hidden away among the fir forests – the likes of which I hadn’t experienced before. While much of USA was suffering roasting temperatures and flooding rains, the Pacific Northwest’s weather was beautiful. The air on Friday night and on Sunday’s cooled-down morning delivered great performances. Sunday’s unexpected splash of rain delayed the schedule but it scarcely showed, at least on the ground.
Driving up the 18 from Auburn, there’s a standard road sign, “Green River College / Pacific Raceways next right”, but you’d never have known there was an event taking place. No advertising, no traffic backup. I had glimpsed one local TV ad earlier in the week. Thursday night’s pre-race gathering at Auburn’s Outlet Center produced a great turnout of local hot rodders but I’m not sure how many ‘ordinary folk’ showed up to meet Tony Stewart and his fellows at the autograph session.
The track’s management spent a fortune importing Musco lighting for Friday’s 9.15pm Pro qualifying session and the result was spectacular. But where were the fans in the stands? On the ground, you are conscious of plenty of people milling around everywhere – and there was a broad age range, not all oldsters like me – but half-empty stands spell out an instant message to the TV audience. It’s still the best show in motorsports for the people at the track and enjoys success as a b2b model for the sponsors involved, but what instant impression do casual viewers and potential supporters carry away from the TV background view? During the Sunday delay, the Sunoco Vision screen showed footage of Michael Brotherton’s Seattle TF win in 1992 and, from a glimpse, the spectator-side stands appeared full to the brim, especially the very tall one.
So here’s the modern conundrum: what do you do to refill those spectator stands that once were filled but no longer are?
And once upon a time, didn’t fans use to stick around for the finals?
I was NITRO BREATH
Nitro Member
Just got back from Seattle 2 days ago. The first thing I have to mention was the weather. It was beautiful for the 7 days we were there!! Mid 70's and sunny every day. We stayed in an Airbnb in west Seattle for 3 days. We were a 3-minute drive from the beach and spent some time there. It's a great neighborhood. Had a great day taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island and exploring it. Sunday morning, we drove to the track [ a 35 min drive]. We arrived around 830 and had no trouble getting into the parking lot. I really like the smaller tracks [ and I think Pacific might be smaller than Epping]. Easier to get into and walk the pits. As some have commented here the crowd was small. That made the pits easily walkable, but I was surprised considering Saturday looked packed form the TV coverage. It was quite cool in the morning, and I was expecting fast runs. That was happening first round until Capps blew it up and the cleanup was over an hour. Then it decided to rain. It was barely raining but they stopped the race and eventually dried the track. Then another long delay when Richards hit the wall. Then the sun came out and it got pretty warm. So, it was one of those days where the race gods were being finicky 
After first round things went pretty smoothly. One of the negatives of NHRA doing such a good job keeping the races moving these days is that there is very limited time between rounds to walk the pits so the delays gave me ample time in the pits.
To answer Chris' question - two things that stood out about the food at the track. There was a large Mexican food area that had good food and fruit drinks. And near the pro stock pits there was a stand that had Poke bowls. It was an interesting comment on the food habits of us race fans that the 'Healthy' Poke stand had a very short line and the ones that sold the 'artery clogging' fries and burgers had long lines.
All in all, it was another great day at the races
We then drove to another Airbnb in Boston Harbor about 1 hr from the track and a few miles from the city of Olympia. The next 3 days we spent exploring the area. The highlight was Olympic National Park. Awesome is an overused word these days but the park is awesome!!
Unlike Robin we only had a 3 hr time difference when we got back home to the Hudson Valley in NY.
To answer Curtis' question-- YES we had fun. I always say, any day at the races is a good day and this was no exception. It was our first time in the Northwest, and we got a good introduction to the area. We certainly would like to come back to the area and see more of the National Parks and of course come back to the track.
After first round things went pretty smoothly. One of the negatives of NHRA doing such a good job keeping the races moving these days is that there is very limited time between rounds to walk the pits so the delays gave me ample time in the pits.To answer Chris' question - two things that stood out about the food at the track. There was a large Mexican food area that had good food and fruit drinks. And near the pro stock pits there was a stand that had Poke bowls. It was an interesting comment on the food habits of us race fans that the 'Healthy' Poke stand had a very short line and the ones that sold the 'artery clogging' fries and burgers had long lines.
All in all, it was another great day at the racesWe then drove to another Airbnb in Boston Harbor about 1 hr from the track and a few miles from the city of Olympia. The next 3 days we spent exploring the area. The highlight was Olympic National Park. Awesome is an overused word these days but the park is awesome!!
Unlike Robin we only had a 3 hr time difference when we got back home to the Hudson Valley in NY.
To answer Curtis' question-- YES we had fun. I always say, any day at the races is a good day and this was no exception. It was our first time in the Northwest, and we got a good introduction to the area. We certainly would like to come back to the area and see more of the National Parks and of course come back to the track.
