This has been an extra busy winter for many of us here in New Central.
Customary to just about every off-season and no different the past couple months, we traditionally make trips to the SEMA show in Las Vegas and the NHRA Division 6 operator’s meetings and season closing Land of the Leaders Banquet in Seattle. This past December we participated in the National Track Operator’s Conference in Orlando, in addition to an extended stay to take in the PRI show. Each and every winter we also visit a number of rod & custom shows, in preparation for our Roadster Show coming up on March 6th-9th at Expo Idaho. We’ve already been to the San Francisco Rod & Custom Show and the Phoenix Autorama. A trip to the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona is also right around the corner.
Add all this into the construction projects continuing at the raceway along with all the pre-season planning, scheduling, and marketing—and you begin to get a sense for how active and engaging this winter has been.
We are not only motivated about the 2008 calendar of events, but totally jacked about all facets of the Firebird racing scene.
One new event that will occupy an important part of the schedule this season will be the Summit E.T. Finals. Most are already familiar with the fact the Finals will be at Firebird later this summer. In fact, the dates are August 29th-31st. What’s cool about this weekend in particular is the fact it provides an extra day (Monday) for travel, vacation or whatever, since it falls over Labor Day weekend.
During our meetings in December, Division 6 track operators voted to elevate the Sunday’s championship purse structure. Making the event even more significant, we have now pledged a $5,000 increase in Sunday’s main event purse. New for 2008, the champions will run for $3,000 to win in Super Pro, $2,500 to win in Pro (as both classes benefited from increases of $1,000 per class), and both Sportsman and Snow/Bike will run for $1,000 to win in each class. In addition, increases were made in both the runner-up and semi-final spots, too.
During the meetings, a variety of topics were reviewed pertaining to the Summit Series. Specific to our Gold Cup program and the Pro category, racers who run a trans-brake will need to be in compliance with a NHRA-accepted trans-brake switch. To learn more about the specific rules that will be in place for the E.T. Finals, you can stop by the Division 6 site for more details:
http://nhradiv6.com/apcm/templates/divtech.asp?articleid=384&zoneid=28.
To say we’re excited to play host to the Team Race would be a big understatement. It’s one of the really fun happenings of the entire season. Just check out the group picture from last year’s E.T. Finals at Woodburn – above. From all indications, it looks like everyone pegged the fun meter big-time. And if you look real close, you’ll quickly notice that it’s not just Team Firebird in this picture, but several other racers from opposing teams, too. It’s all part of the chemistry and attitude behind this once-a-year experience. In all reality, where else can you get 56 of your own racers together to battle with the best 56 from eighteen or so other northwest tracks. It’s the competition, the team spirit, the after hours gatherings, cheering on your team mates, and the list goes on and on.
All we can say is – start making your plans to be a part of this incredible weekend of fun later on this Summer.
We plan to have the official schedule in place within a couple of weeks. The majority of it is together, but we are still fine tuning a few aspects of the four-color printed version, which is set to hit everyone’s mail box by early to mid-February.