A New Lease on Life in the Fast Lane at Raceway

At a time when drag-racing has run into bureaucratic red lights across the Southland, Pomona’s drag strip literally has won a new lease on life.

A $4.5-million renovation of the Pomona Raceway is getting finishing touches just in time for the start of the annual Winternationals today. After years of delicate negotiations over noise levels and a long-term lease, the drag strip got a permanent home at the Fairplex earlier this year, and more than 100,000 spectators are expected at the four-day event.

Elsewhere in the Southland, drag strips have been disappearing. Racetracks in Irwindale, Ontario, Wilmington and San Fernando have shut down in the last two decades, victims of the spiraling value of the land they were built on and the escalating roar of hot-rod engines.

Their quarter-mile spans have been buried beneath higher-profit developments such as housing tracts, hotels and industrial yards. Southern California, the birthplace of drag-racing in the 1950s, has steadily become a stranger to its own home-grown tradition.

But in Pomona, 40,000 permanent stadium seats and a new three-story hospitality building with 18 corporate suites will be ready in time for the nitromethane-fueled rails and funny cars to take off. Construction began last summer after the National Hot Rod Assn. obtained a 15-year lease from Los Angeles County to use the drag strip.

Because of complaints about the noisy dragsters, the NHRA also sought the blessings of Pomona and La Verne before starting the renovation. As part of its agreements with the cities, the NHRA erected high-tech sound barriers that are expected to curtail track noise by as much as 50% in the nearby residential areas.

La Verne Mayor Jon Blickenstaff, who grew up across the street from the Pomona Raceway, said he will reserve judgment on the sound barriers until the racing begins.

Over the years, he said, the dragsters have been getting louder as they get faster and more powerful. Cars now reach 300 m.p.h. in 5 seconds on the quarter-mile track. Blickenstaff, however, commends the NHRA for making a “major effort” to quell the roar.

Pomona residents have also lodged complaints about the noise, but Councilman Willie White said that “most of the people realize it takes place only twice a year.”

He said the Winternationals this week and the fall Winston Finals are a boon for the local economy and provide positive publicity for the area. “Overall, it’s good for the city,” he said.

Race veteran Don (the Snake) Prudhomme, running in the top fuel class this year, said it is about time Southern California got a permanent track.

“We go to tracks across the country that have beautiful facilities, like Gainesville (Fla.), Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis and Houston,” he said. The Pomona drag strip, which in the past was assembled with rented bleachers, hospitality tents and portable toilets on the fairgrounds, has “always been like a makeshift operation.”

The 51-year-old native of Southern California, who won his first NHRA event in Pomona in 1965, said he misses the local drag strips that abounded during his early days in the sport. “We’d race at Colton on a Friday night, Lions (Wilmington) on a Saturday night and San Fernando on Sunday,” he said. “Then, if we got tired of those tracks, we’d go to Fontana or Irwindale.”

These days, the choices are far more limited. Even after the renovation of the Pomona facility, it will be used only twice a year. The only amateur drag strip that operates weekly in the Southland is the L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale.

“The people who miss out are the local guys with hot rods that they want to race on a Sunday afternoon,” Prudhomme said. “I was able to enjoy all that stuff, not only at one track but at several. They’re not able to do that anymore.”

The Irwindale drag strip has been paved over by the Miller Brewing Co., for example, and Orange County International Raceway was closed after housing tracts sprang up around it and neighbors complained about the noise.

John Force, a two-time NHRA funny car champion, who grew up in the South Bay and raced at Pomona and Irwindale for years, said he misses the days when he was able to make a living as a drag racer without even leaving town.

Like Prudhomme, Force is looking forward to racing at the renovated Fairplex drag strip. “This is my home track,” he said.