SoCal: Pomona (AAA Speedway) and Qualcomm both closing...

[VTC THIS]

http://www.dragracingonline.com/agen...-xiv_2-59.html

...sounds like AAA Speedway Pomona will be temporary. I tried to call them today and after 5 mins of holding no one answered.

Qualcomm sounds more permanent if they are terminating the program.

This just after Irwindale closed. Leaving only two tracks to cover a ~500 mile radius: Barona Raceway (1/8 mile in SD county) and Famoso (1/4 in Bakersfield).

Something tells me there's going to be a lot more street racing, and that the cops paid to generate revenue are going to be happy about it.

[pluck yew]

ummmm, while that sucks and all, Vegas will never close and its no 500 miles from So-Cal.... plus its open almost all the time. its ~350-ish miles from San Diego and ~280 from Santa Clarita.

Speedworld in Whitman AZ..... 400-ish miles from Santa Clarita, about the northernmost place in So-Cal.

Firebird in Chandler, AZ...... 425-ish miles from Santa Clarita, again, northernmost place in So-Cal.

you have options if you are making the area 500 mile radius from anywhere in So-Cal. they just arent really close to you anymore.

[VTC THIS]

ummmm, while that sucks and all, Vegas will never close and its no 500 miles from So-Cal.... plus its open almost all the time. its ~350-ish miles from San Diego and ~280 from Santa Clarita.

Speedworld in Whitman AZ..... 400-ish miles from Santa Clarita, about the northernmost place in So-Cal.

Firebird in Chandler, AZ...... 425-ish miles from Santa Clarita, again, northernmost place in So-Cal.

you have options if you are making the area 500 mile radius from anywhere in So-Cal. they just arent really close to you anymore.

Unfortunately, it's not feasible to drive the 280 miles (4+ hours) to arrive for sign-in/tech, which is usually around 6am at most tracks (that puts us leaving before 2am), hopefully getting a few runs in, then driving home the 4+ hours tired from a long day in the sun. 8+ hours of driving for maybe 2 minutes of track time and for those of us tracking drivers, that's a sh!t ton of fuel ($$$).

We've got Famoso as well, which is a little over 2 hours from the OC area each way. Still, I don't think the proper reaction is to be OK with it. "We encourage that which we tolerate" comes to mind for this instance.

But yeah...280 miles each way really ISN'T an option for test and tune.

[pluck yew]

i dont know what to tell ya then.... i have thought about towing my car the 8 hrs one way to SAC to get a few passes in.

our track opens this sunday, and i have friends towing from >4 hrs away in the hopes to make a few passes. and that is hope because it snowed today here. its about how much you love what you do.

myself, i am trying to plan a trip from here in OR to tow my car to run @ Atco, E-town, and then Norwalk on the trip home, just to go run those tracks once. its >2900 miles each way, and 44 hrs straight driving to get there. at todays rate thats over $2k in fuel for the tow rig alone..... and time off from work is all that i cannot coordinate to line up.

again, its how much you love what you do.

[soch naungayan]

I'm so pissed about this. I have been getting my car ready for Bug In....thats out the door. Were now left with either Firebird..Famoso or LVMS...all a hike with our b.s. traffic. Barona 1/8th is the only track left in all of Socal.

[DCor]

I feel your pain, brother.

I shared a warehouse with a few other racer guys so close that we could hear Gateway International Raceway on T-n-T nights. We lost it when the owners closed it because of millions due in back taxes. We were without the track all of last season so we had to load up the trailer and pull the rig four-to-six hours away to get some passes in. We really needed to test our automatic transmission "experiement" but it sure was a pain to pull two states away only to break something on the first pass.

Luckily, Gateway was purchased by a fella who worked through the tax issues and will be opening it back up in two weeks. I'll never look that gift-horse in the mouth again.

We can go out on a tuesday evening to test things again. If it breaks, I can be home in time to watch some TV before bed at 10:00.

Best of luck to you and your racetrack predicament......I feel your pain.

[VTC THIS]

Yeah, it's a bust. Barona isn't an option for me only because my current car really only wakes up after the 1/8 mile mark (expecting something like a 13.8 @ 110 in the 1/4). 1/8 mile tracks are a waste of gas for me!

I guess I'm gonna have to get a fuel drum and make the drive up to Bakersfield. It's just so expensive since I don't tow the car, it's a driver. So that means filling a drum with E85 and bringing it with me. I don't know, maybe there's a gas station up there with E85. But then there's the issue of breaking like someone mentioned...if I break at Fontana, or Irwindale...AAA will cover my tow (100 miles). But if I break in Bakersfield or Vegas, I'm in serious trouble.

We need to petition Jay Leno to just BUY one of the tracks (and the land it's on). No more of this leasing garbage.

Maybe I'll just hibernate for a while...going to start on a new drag project soon anyway. Finally going to do the VRT I always wanted, just trying to decide on MK1 or MK2 for the host.

[speeding-g6O]

http://www.dragzine.com/news/irwinda...en-april-26th/