New Track in California (1 Viewer)

[SundayNiagara]

Hope they enjoy being part of a sinking ship that puts on shows that are hillbilly amateurish. I could tell things changed at PBIR in FL once they went IHRA when they had motorcycles lining up against cars and dragsters.

Go to Immokalee. Much better.

 

[HEMI6point1]

I heard good things about Immokalee but personally I'm not traveling 3+ hours for an 1/8th mile track.

 

[Jeff]

I think the track manager and owners matter MUCH MUCH more to the racer/spectator experience than the sanctioning bodies. We raced both for a long time (primarily because IHRA ran both junior dragsters and top dragsters at their divisionals). Most every track we've raced at, we've been to more than 5 times covering at least 20 tracks around the country. The local management/ownership make the big difference ... not the sanction.

Heck, I would argue that the announcer makes a bigger difference than the sanctioning body.

As I understand it all motorsports use basically the same insurance underwriting, I'm sure there are costs and attitude differences, but the sanctions are mainly only at your track when you ask them to be there. Now would the IHRA lower there fees to get more west coast tracks, likely yes. But I would never tell any single vendor that I would ONLY use them.... Heck no .... I want all my vendors to know that I'm using whatever works best for me and my customers.

We stopped running IHRA because we were one second faster than almost every car we raced against. In bracket racing, there is no way to be comparably consistent with that difference. Then the IHRA stopped running TD. Definitely an organization that is struggling with its fan base, but for a local track and a local racer I think they would be as much in the mix as the NHRA unless you wanted to host divisionals/nationals ... and I don't think anyone in their right mind would use that as the reason to open a track nowadays.

 

[rocketman]

This is great news! Also a track is going in near Kansas City!

 

[glofria]

I don't think the Santa Maria Group intentions were to have a state-of-the-art megaplex with 20,000 seat capacity. They want to start out as a locals track and have certain events like The Nitro Revival and other specialty shows come in. At some point they will bring in bigger programs like the ANRA for entertainment and go from there.

They still have to get the support from the local communities and build from there. This method is better than building something big and expecting the communities to except it.

We may even put together an old street legal straight axle Gasser to race up there.

One other thing they have going for them is the mid-summer heat waves does not affect that area. When other tracks are shutting down in the June July months Santa Maria gets 80-90 degree weather. They also can run in the winter months when it's too cold at inland tracks.

 

[DG]

I used to like to go to the old Santa Maria track!