The future of NHRA Drag Racing in Southern California may be in jeopardy, or at least that’s the feeling around SoCal since a story in the Inland Empire Daily Bulletin came out this week referring to a three person committee created by the Pomona City Council that may be recommending changes to what kind of events can be held at the Fairplex, home to NHRA’s Winternationals and Finals, plus other car guy events like the Pomona Swap Meet. In the story, Fairplex and committee personnel discuss the current state of affairs, the future, and more. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First there is some quick history to cover.

In 1970, rules were set forth as to what kind of events the Fairplex could have and when, and required anything outside those parameters to require a special permit that would be approved and considered by the city council and it’s agents. In 2004 the rules were changed to include more types of events AND a larger “season” for these events. This change was made to address the fact that the Fairplex had grown to hold more events, throughout the year, and of all kinds. None of this was an issue, until the past few years. Neighbors, residents, and officials now believe that the Fairplex has gone beyond the intended scope of those 2004 rules changes and this has some folks wanting the Fairplex to revert back to the 1970 rules.

Without getting into all the details of who has said what, when, know that representative from both the committee and the Fairplex hope they can come to some compromise that will keep everyone happy. Events that are most likely to be effected by any rules changes are live music and automotive events. The reason? These events draw way more than 10,000 people which is the threshold that residents and some committee members want to see. Having a maximum attendance of 10,000 people would mean events like NHRA drag races, and the Pomona Swap Meet, would exceed that by a lot. So would Raves, or Electronic Music Festivals.

But that does NOT mean they CAN’T happen. It just means they couldn’t happen without a special permit. That is if the current round of proposed rules was adopted. And they might not be. But if they are, this is what that means for us car people.

The Pomona Swap Meet happens 7 times per year, and brings in tens of thousands of people, for one day of swap meet. Truthfully it’s more like 24 hours I suppose. I’m sure it generates a lot of trash, but overall it is a pretty clean and quiet event. The biggest issue with it is traffic coming in and out of the Fairplex as people enter and exit two sides of the property. We know how insane that traffic can be to get in and figure that it can’t be cool if you are a resident trying to get into or out of the area early on Sunday morning. If the rules required the Pomona Swap Meet to have a special permit it could mean three different things. One, it could mean they don’t give the permit and the Pomona Swap Meet would have to move or shut down. Two, it could get the permit for the year and the future of the Pomona Swap Meet would be decided on a year by year basis, or it could be a month to month which would make planning the future of the Pomona Swap Meet very difficult. I’m not sure how you run a business like that. At which point perhaps they look for a new home. Fontana would work and is only 15 minutes further East, and there are other locations as well I’m sure.

As for the NHRA races, NHRA officials have already told Fairplex staff that they will not be able to work with the Fairplex if special permits are required because that means they can’t plan long term with regards to scheduling events. We can understand this. It sucks, but when you are running something as big as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, you need to be able to plan for more than a few months ahead. If NHRA can’t be assured of the following seasons, not just the next race at Pomona, then how can they maintain their program? I’m not sure they can. Thinking positively, and knowing the relationship the city of Pomona has had with the Fairplex and NHRA, I hope they figure something out.  If not, the options get interesting.

How interesting? Well….

Californian’s are fond of bitching about how we have no dragstrips, when in fact we have a lot more than most states. Of course our state is WAY bigger than most other states as well, so it kinda makes sense. But that means they are spread out a lot too. And more importantly for the NHRA, only a couple of them are capable of being an NHRA National Event track and even then it would require updating a facility. People are quick to look to the east where California Speedway in Fontana is located, which has a nice dragstrip. But it is NOT a dragstrip that could handle an NHRA National Event. It isn’t long enough, it has nowhere near enough grandstands, and the way that it is situated you couldn’t add grandstands except on one side. And did we mention it isn’t long enough? Oh and it already has major noise issues with neighbors. So Fontana is out.

Famoso Raceway Bakersfield will work! Well, maybe.

The track is all concrete and awesome, technically long enough (although we’d say NHRA should extend it a bit since there is room, and the facility has plenty of pit space. Parking is “okay” but could be better. With that said there is room to park more cars and it would require nothing more than some tractor work. The big problem with Bakersfield would be the grandstands, which are wooden and cool. NHRA National events need big aluminum grandstands on both sides and that would require adding them on the left and replacing them on the right. I’m not sure that the current track ownership would want to change the personality and soul of the facility. Some people say Bakersfield couldn’t house enough fans in hotel rooms, but I don’t see how that is possible. Bakersfield’s food scene is pretty good actually, and I think there are plenty of restaurants to feed everyone.

But there is one other issue for Bakersfield, and it sounds trivial considering how many people come to the March Meet there each year, but Bakersfield isn’t near any major metropolitan area. It’s two to three hours from the Southern California area, at least that far from any Northern California metro area, and the airport isn’t very large. That means that most of the folks coming to watch the races in person would be coming for a single day, with a long drive both directions, or they would have to get hotel rooms which means more expense for an already expensive weekend at the races.

All of this of course is speculation based on what may or may not happen, what options are available at this moment, and without knowing what else might be in the works. So should we worry about it right this second? Probably not. We should probably wait to see what happens with the city council, Fairplex staff, and neighbors. I hope they can all sit down and have normal conversations about this and figure out a way to make everyone less mad, if not happy. We’ll see.

Until then, don’t panic.