I’ll give some thoughts and ideas as to why I think Bandimere is looked so highly upon. I think the primary reasons are twofold one, how well they take care of the racer (who is a customer) and two how well they take care of the spectator (another paying customer). I’ll talk first about the racer aspect. In 1989/90 they shut down the facility to construct a state of the art tower and grandstands. Only a couple of tracks in the country had the big tower at that time and the Bandimeres knew it was the way of the future and they wanted to provide a top notch facility for both the racers and fans. A few years after that I believe Bandimere was one of the first facilities to have a tractor like device with tires or rubber connected on the back of it to lay rubber on the track. I could be wrong, but I believe NHRA contacted Bandimere and worked with them to design the tractor we all now see cleaning and scrubbing the track at national events. Within the last few years, they pulled up the asphalt from half track on and laid concrete making the full 1320 concrete, as well as, installing a cooling system under the track for the first couple hundred feet. Track temps at the Mile High’s were usually in the 130’s and 140’s during the daytime heat but last year the pro teams were saying the temps were in the 100’s to low 120’s. I believe they are the only track to have a cooling system underneath it but I could be wrong. The shutdown area has been upgraded to the new standard that has been adopted since Scott’s passing. They have had the same track manager, Larry Crispe, for as long as I can remember and he takes great pride in the racing surface.
From the fans perspective, when I was about 12 or so, John Force blew a hole in a set of headers and as they were lying next to the garbage I asked a crewmember of his if I could have them. He said sure, so I took them. After getting John to sign them I proceeded to lug them back to the car. My dad said, “I’m carrying the cooler and everything else so if you really want those headers you have to carry them yourself.” I didn’t know how heavy those headers really are for a 12 year old to carry. Being that the pro pits and the parking are on opposite sides of the facility, I thought my arms would eventually fall off. A Bandimere staff member saw me struggling with them and pulled up on a golf cart and offered me a ride. My dad threw me the keys and off I went to the car where the guy helped me put them into the trunk.
Another example is one year I wanted an update on all of the track records so I sent Bruce Kamada (one of the main announcers and I believe their marketing guy), an email and the next day he sent me everything I had asked for along with some other cool tidbits I didn’t know. The Bandimeres also do a lot of work with local schools and because of this Bruce knows the name to every high school in the state. You tell him you went to Northglenn, then he knows you are a Norseman, if you went to Thornton, then he knows you’re a Trojan, etc. They also have a program called Race to Read. Basically they work with elementary schools to encourage the kids to read. The kids, classes, schools, etc. that read the most get free tickets to the bigger events of the year. To top it off, the teachers of the winning classes get to race heads up against each other in the Bandimere provided Camaros. With programs like this how could you not like them?
Add on things like the Mopar Big Block party the Thursday night before the Mile High’s that they help put on, or the fact that they have the longest running sponsor for their race (Mopar) than any other national event, or looking at their staffing and org chart looks like a family tree, and it’s not hard pressed to see why fans and racers alike love the facility and it’s down to earth, family orientated staff.
