Pacific Raceways is Cool

(From NHRA.com) They’ve been racing nitro cars in Seattle since the 1960s, and sometimes it still feels like the ‘60s there. It’s one of just two tracks on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule (New England Dragway being the other) without a mega starting line tower and/or skyboxes, and the cars are pitted out in the fringes of an evergreen forest, and, other than some taller grandstands and a slightly expanded control tower, the place still looks the same, which has its own cool vibe. Pro Stock Motorcycle winner Gaige Herrera called the surface one of the best he’s raced on, which is saying something because he’s been to Gainesville, Charlotte, Chicago, Norwalk, Indy, Reading, and Pomona, to name a few, in his short career.

The track got an extra level of cool this year with the king of drag racing cool, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, serving as grand marshal and social media phenom Shaun “What! No Way!” Umscheid both in attendance, to the delight of autograph- and selfie-seeking fans who stood in long lines to meet both.