Pacific Raceways: A Friend in Need

Living in the Pacific Northwest and having a passion for cars, you can’t help but know S.I.R.  as it was known from 1976 to 2002. The original land owners regained control of the track,  it reverted back to its original name, Pacific Raceways.  The Pacific Raceways track (and history) has been apart of the Northwest since 1960, when it was constructed.

Currently the track is undergoing land development and expansion.  They are in need of help from racers, car clubs, residents, sponsors and all around supporters.  If you’re like me, love having Pacific Raceways and want to see it continue to grow then please help them out.  Monday December 5^th 1:30p.m. at the King County Courthouse 10^th Floor in Seattle.  The Final Vote will be cast regarding the land expansion.  If you can’t make it please voice your opinion to your King County Council Member http://www.kingcounty.gov/council/councilmembers.aspx. A quick email of your experiences and want for a larger facility in the Northwest will help out immensely!

I’ve been attending Pacific Raceways since the late 90’s when I was a student at Puyallup High School.  What did we look forward to all year as a teen?  The High School Drags: this is when bragging rights, personal grudges and everything could be settled on the track.  Friends and Family from all over the Northwest would gather and support their students and cheer for their schools.  Whether you had a 1990 Nissan Stanza as your first car, or been helping dad build a 1969 Full Blown Chevelle SS you were there.

Since those early years of racing, I’ve gone back to Pacific Raceways as a photographer and event coordinator, occasionally getting ride-alongs on the Marlboro Lapping Day in a Panoz GTS and drifting in the parking lot in a Ford Mustang.  I did ET Bracket Racing in my AWD Celica Alltrac as well as lap attack on Pacific Grand Prix.

With the help of John Ramsey, and Kerstyn Dolack at Pacific Raceways I managed to put together the Japanese Tsunami Relief Fund Car show in early 2011.  The event housed over 1300 cars, donations from Toyota of Puyallup, NOS, Ernies Grubbin Grub made it a huge success.

In July 2011 Pacific Raceways helped out again, after months of planning, our venue was unable the house The BigNW Subaru Show.  With a months notice, we were able to construct an AutoX in the pits, and held our car show in the overflow lot.  500+ Subaru’s showed up that day. This doesn’t seem like much, but when you factor in PGP was holding the Dirty Dash a 10K run with 1000’s of runners and even more spectators followed by Drag Racing at PR that evening.  The day went off with out a hitch having 3 large events in one location.

The last huge event that’s near and dear to me is the NWToyRun.  The last two years I’ve helped out Alan Kettle the founder of the NWToyRun make stickers and gaining attendance to the show.  Last year, an auto enthusiast donated $3500 and filled a 27-foot U-Haul with new unopened toys for Toys For Tots.

These are some of a few experiences I’ve personally had at Pacific Raceways.  And I’m just one individually.  There’s tens of thousands of stories over the 50 years at the track.   It’s been great seeing the change in the past 13 years for me, I’d like to continue to see it grow.

I’m also excited to share some of my father’s photos from Pacific raceways from the late 1960’s so you get an idea of how things have grown up.

The Early Years:

A little rain never slowed race fans down in the NW

Tsunami Relief Car Show

video_id=WewkPLdGwCI

2009 SOVERN Vintage Races

Super Moto at PGP

Drifting past the Construction Equipment

Two wheelin Subaru on Lapping Day

Antoine L’Estage Rallying past the Backhoe for Rally Extravaganza 2009

NOS Forum Fest 2010

Marlboro Lapping Day, Waiting for a Panoz GTS to pick me up!

Lining up to take the track for 2010 SOVERN Races

WMMRA 2010

2010 Good Guys Drag Race

2011 NHRA Nationals