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Posted by moldy
on September 10, 2009, 10:34 am
98.148.235.188
Willow Springs ready to host
Event slated for Wednesday
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Thursday, September 10, 2009.
By BRIAN GOLDEN
Valley Press Staff Writer
That the return of street legal drag racing was supposed to be the big news out of Willow Springs International Motorsports Park was somehow appropriate.
The death of racing icon Walt James on Wednesday morning dragged down even the joy of the resumption of drag racing in the Valley.
Beginning next week, Wednesday becomes "Grudge Night" on a one-eighth mile stretch of the main straight on Willow Springs' "Fastest Road In The West."
"We're going to have everything they have right now out on 40th Street East, except street-legal and under full safety supervision," said Chris Huth, the president and general manager of Willow Springs. "We're going to play this by ear as we get started.
"The whole emphasis of what we're trying to do is get kids off the streets and get them to do their drag racing here."
Gates will open at 5 p.m., with drag racing under the lights set to begin a 6 and continue through 10 p.m.
To celebrate the return of organized drag racing to the Valley for the first time since Los Angeles County Raceway's closure in July 2007, Huth will waive the registration fee for the first 50 cars through the gates at 70th Street West and Rosamond Boulevard.
"All they have to do is pay the standard $10 admission at the gate," Huth said. "Their car has to be registered and fully insured, they must have a valid driver's license, and they have to have a seat belt and a helmet."
Since the announcement a month ago that the legendary 650-acre motorsports complex would resume drag racing for the first time in nearly 50 years, Huth and Jim Hutchins, his operations manager, have been fielding excited calls from all over Southern California.
When some of the calls lapsed into technical advisories about the requirements of an NHRA-sanctioned dragstrip, Huth had to throw the yellow caution flag.
"We're not building a full quarter-mile dragstrip here," explained the son of fabled Willow Springs owner Bill Huth. "We're going to crawl before we walk. As my father said in announcing this, our main focus is putting an end to street racing in the Valley by offering a safe, supervised alternative.
"All of the fees we collect will be put right back into the drag-racing program, paying for the lights and the emergency medical personnel that will be there. But later on, if it grows like I think it will, that money will go into an electric timing and scoring system, things like that."
For starters, literally, cars will roll up to the starting line flanking the flagman/starter.
At the end of the eighth-mile run, another official will declare the winner.
"In other words, we'll have the same thing they have out on 40th Street East," Huth said, "only a whole lot safer."
In early August, raceway officials met with former mainstays at Los Angeles County Raceway, including LACR operations director Tim Shpall and Jeff Hillinger, the irrepressible SaveLACR.org founder who's spearheaded the search for a successor to LACR since its emotional closing on July 29, 2007.
Hillinger pointed out that Willow's 45-foot straightaway width - 22½ feet per lane - was five feet narrower than drag racing minimums, and 15 feet narrower than most modern tracks.
After seeing the thousand-foot braking zone beyond the finish line, a football field shorter than LACR's, he emphasized the need for testing.
"Whether you're a quarter-mile or an eighth of mile, the launch is still the launch," Hillinger said. "You still need to get these cars slowed down."
Ten days after the initial meeting, Shpall and Hillinger were told Willow Springs would operate the new drag racing program entirely in-house.
Hillinger writes about the negotiations at his SaveLACR.org website.
On message boards throughout the high desert drag racing community, racers and fans insist they won't participate in the new program if Hillinger and Shpall aren't involved.
Moldy Marvin says that would be a mistake.
"All in all, (Willow Springs) totally has my blessing," Hillinger said Wednesday. "We would have preferred to run on Friday nights, because it's kind of tough to get out of work or school early on a Wednesday.
"But it can still be part of my street-legal racing program as a tune-and-tune on Wednesday nights."
What all sides can agree on is the opportunity the drag racing community now has to prove is that a drag strip would be a commercial as well as public safety success.
To improve the rapport between young racers and law enforcement, Chris Huth was going out this week to invite the California Highway Patrol and the Sheriff's Departments of Los Angeles and Kern Counties to become involved.
Scott Graham and the LASD deputies racing team ran a Camaro for years at LACR.
Next week's return of drag racing to Willow Springs for the first time since the early 1960s will be chronicled by Public Broadcasting's KCET-TV in Los Angeles.
They were coming to The Streets of Willow Springs to do a documentary on teenage driving distractions such as cell phone conversations and texting.
They hit the jackpot with former street racers.
"This is all about getting the street racers in here," Huth said. "After that, we'll see where we go from there."
bgolden@avpress.com
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