After suffering from a problem filled early season that culminated with an NHRA national event that one drag racing journalist dubbed, “The Disaster Nationals,” Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona, has begun a massive track resurfacing project. According to a story on NHRA.com this job is the result of an intensive investigation that apparently yielded information to suggest that the track surface was flawed.
By the sounds of the NHRA story, all of the heavy guns in the drag racing operations world were consulted or conferred with on the proper course of action to “fix” the track at Firebird. One man named specifically in the story is Wayne McMurtry, one of the world’s foremost experts on drag strip paving and construction. McMurtry is a former NHRA world champ and a two-time national event winner in Competition Eliminator. He was the NHRA VP of facilities operation and development for many years. If there’s a guy you want giving advice, it’s him.
Contractor Penhall Company (primary sponsor of Mike Edwards’ Pro Stocker) is performing the work of grinding lots of the track’s 700 feet of concrete, replacing a chunk of concrete starting at 180 feet down track, as well as grinding and repaving the asphalt from the end of the concrete pad (700 feet down track) to well past the finish line (1500 feet).
We’re glad to hear of the improvements and look forward to tighter racing next year at the nationals!
Source — NHRA.com — Firebird Int’l Raceway begins $200,000-plus track repair, improvement project
