If the rumors are correct, all the track personnel that were at Pacific Raceways in 2010 are gone! What is it with Pacific that every couple of years a crew which has started to gel and has earned the respect of most of the local racers is suddenly gone to start the entire process all over again?
Could it be the ownership? Here’s a local news story of interest that does not appear on Pacific Raceways site:
Pacific Raceways president and opponents clash over expansion of track – Covington Reporter – 26 Dec 10
In my opinion, it is time for the ownership of PR to start leveling with the local racers that support them and provide stable management that we know will be running the track from year to year! – Roger Young
Update 25 Apr 2011: At the opening race on April 23, the reports are that most of the track personnel at PR have returned and they ran a good race under the watchful eyes of the new dragstrip manager! That’s good news! They were also very quick to update their website with the results, points, and even reported the results to the Seattle Times. It has been many years since such results were posted in our MSM.
Tech is now back in the staging lanes with registration nearby!
PACIFIC RACWAYS’ DECADE OF UNKEPT PROMISES WEARING THIN – CompetitionPlus.com – August 15, 2011
‘WE CAUSED IT OURSELVES,’ HIGHT SAYS OF TIRE INCIDENT – CompetitionPlus.com – November 28, 2011
In my opinion, the problem at PR has long been with the ownership of the track. Track managers come and go about every two years along with the crew they have put together. This causes problems for a new manager and crew to learn the track prep for PR.
I believe that Chris McMahan did a solid job and had a good crew. Tech inspection and registration went well and he ran a consistent program with good track prep from week to week.
Who knows what the future brings now!
I got the following in from a good friend of mine back East. He raises some good questions!
“Sounds like they want to turn the property into a mall site. The game they are playing is masking something else. It would be interesting to know why the track needs to fail. Once it is declared a failure the property is available for other uses.
“Design for failure is always suspect for masking another motivation. You need to publicly ask them why they insist on risking failure.
“Good luck!”
Seems strange that another track has the PR 2011 schedule posted but Pacific can’t post the friggin’ schedule on their site!
More positive public relations by the track ownership!
There seem to be vastly differing opinions about whether or not the most recent staff (drag racing) was an asset to the track and whether the changes made were for the better. We have been racing at this track for many years and it seems like there is always at least one total jerk on the staff who manages to make the experience less than satisfactory. There are also several procedures that could be streamlined. And they could PREP THE TRACK. Good track prep would go a long way towards making the experience great. There never seems to be enough time to do it, especially when an event is held on the road course until 4:00 and drag racing starts immediately after. Throwing down a little VHT does not equal track prep.
Maverick, thanks for your post and I agree that one of the main problems is the road racing going until 4:00 with little time to really prep the track.
Unfortunately the ownership seems to cater to those who rent the facility and we’re second diddle.
Here it is, Feb 21st, and Pacific still doesn’t have a 2011 schedule posted, in fact their entire website was down when I tried to check it today.
More incompetence by the management at PR. If this is a prelude of things to come in the 2011 season, look for many local racers to cruise over to Bremerton Raceways and spend their bucks there.
Correction, you can view the PR site with IE8 with errors but will not load because of the errors on other browsers such as AOL.
The schedule is not one schedule which can be saved or printed. It is scattered across countless pages!
WHAT A JOKE!
Their site is up and running now, but why isn’t the schedule in PDF format instead of the need to print 5-7 pages of their schedule off of different pages?
The fact is I don’t truly think Jason F cares about the drag racers and never has!! If this statement is not true then he has a weird way of showing it. We have to deal with delays of the start of each race and abysmal race schedule that omits September altogether due to the road racing. Also, can someone explain to me how Bremerton Raceways can have 4 or more big $$ races and PR can only have 1?? It just doesn’t make any sense….