The intra-division rivalry
heated back up over Labor Day weekend during the
Summit E.T. Finals. It's no secret that both
Woodburn Dragstrip and Firebird Raceway have had
a fun, but quite often heated battle going
between powerhouse race tracks in Division 6.
2008 was no different. Woodburn stopped Firebird
during Saturday's Track Manager's Cup. Woodburn
edged out Firebird by a mere 1 point in the
final standings. But as most recognize, Sunday
is the main event, the one day that is more
important than any other in "team" competition
all season long in the northwest. Early on,
Firebird, Woodburn, Portland and Bremerton were
back `n forth in the standings. But by day's
end, the mighty "Drive for Five" - Team Firebird
squad pulled off a convincing 9 point victory
over a very impressive Madras team. Woodburn
ended up fourth overall, losing several of their
prime-time players early in eliminations. The
above photo takes us back a few years, in fact
thirty to be exact. This is Gene Bergstrom,
replete in one of Firebird's original logo'd
t-shirts pushing his Falcon down the staging
lanes of the Bracketeer Nationals in 1978. Even
more amazing is the fact he ran this very car
for Team Firebird in the 1979 Bracket Team
Finals at Portland International Raceway,
finishing runner-up for the Boise race track.
Today, as most learned at this past weekend's
Team Race, Bergstrom (who helps manage Woodburn
with track owner Jim Livingston) is a big
fancier of the music of Yanni. During the
pre-race on Saturday, the entire morning was
filled with many of Gene's favorite Yanni cuts.
Next time you see Gene at Woodburn, be sure and
tell him you'd like to start each race with a
few of Yanni's best. As they say in that
MasterCard commercial - it would be
simply "priceless!".