Any update on Firebird/ SpeedWorld Phoenix

[owen]

I love that place! I grew up out there in the 80s. I won my first bracket race there in 1995. It will be missed. It was called Phoenix Raceway Park when I raced there.

[Bernie Cunningham]

Well, at least NHRA has stepped up to the plate here, HUH !!!

Follow the money ?

[Jeff Lee]

Speedworld:
1. Owner that loved his motocross track and was openly against the drag strip (not Hal; writer of the announcement); call it a necessary evil. Maybe he wasn't against it but the MC track was definitely his baby.
2. Track Manager Victoria Griffey was there 20 years and left a year or so ago. I believe it had a lot to do with #1 above. Hal took over and put his heart into it but, again, se #1.
3. Track owner decided all night "rave" type parties at the track with DJ's, booze, bikini contests, mud wrestling, etc., was what the track owner needed. A total cash cow. Unfortunately, 25 or so arrests by the County Sheriff for underage drinking, drug possessions, fighting, etc,. per event. I hardly think the residents surrounding the track appreciated those events. And it sure caught the eye of the County.
4. County starts looking into the facility which had been off radar for decades. County finds #1 above had gone beyond the original land lease agreement and had built out of the boundaries and had not obtained proper building permits, structure issues, grading issues and the big elephant; county says they need sewer connections @ MC track.
5. #1 above takes on county. Makes the big paper last summer. Interview with #1 above makes it obvious that #1 above was going to fight city hall and was going to do things his way. Doesn't adhere to the well known proverb "you can't fight city hall".
6. Track announces closing.

I'm pissed but I saw it coming in the order I presented with each # being another nail in the coffin. I have raced there since 1978 and the owner at the time, Mike Donnelly, gave the track(no charge) to me and my buddy Brian Griffey for the day with timers to test / tune and experiment with our '70 & '71 Challenger street cars that we raced probably 50 weeks out of the year. Imagine that today? Mike loved that track and so did all the other owners that followed. Except #1 above.
We see tracks closed all over the country to make room for a parking lot, commercial buildings and whatever else. We see them close because of external influences. But this track is closing because of one person and it is internal.

[RobbieRacer]

I have raced there for many years and this guy is the worst owner we have had. He has said many times he doesnt care about the Dragstrip. He has already found a place for the drit bike track.
I Like Hal but he is a Dirt Biker at heart.
I dont see Speedworld ever opening again, if Dan owns it that is. Sad. JMO

[Sean Marconette]

Sounds similar to KCIR ( Kansas City International Raceway). City buys track due to neighbors complaints, and politics. City says they need another park and after a couple of years now still sitting vacant. Oh and BTW, D-5 director was part owner in the track. Now latest rumor is that snakes have halted city from making it a park. The only snakes are the politicians and the D-5 director.

Sorry to hear about the track.

Sean

[Pat Cook]

I have been going to Phoenix Raceway/Speedworld since I was 16 years old, I am currently 59, I had a short career as a starter there back when the Freeman brothers still had their Nova stick cars, back when dials were only a tenth a part and the starter had to figure the difference as the cars were doing burn outs then you put the dial it to a little box with a rotary dial on it,

Really is a sad situation. I was slowly convincing my better half to move to Wickenburg partly to be a little closer to a race track that has always had a special place in my soul. Who knows....I was born and raised in the great state of Arizona, but it is slowly becoming too much like CA. no offense to my California buddies. My it is time to move, but not to Wickenburg.

[RobbieRacer]

We have been thinking about Portland Or.

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by RobbieRacer

I.
I Like Hal but he is a Dirt Biker at heart.

Robbie, I think you ought to cut Hal some slack here..He's a car guy.He just likes those old pipe rack things..He did a lot of work at the M/C track., because that's where the business was..The drag strip under Dan, and I don't know before that, never held up it's end of the deal.
They tried Wed night , Fri night ,Saturday day and night, and Sundays, but the racers and T& T-ers never came out in any great numbers.
Some of our independent promotions did okay, and propped up the drag strip, but bottom line, the numbers just weren't there for what it costs to open ,staff light up ,and prep a dragstrip in this century.
This Valley was hard hit by the recession and paying spectators were scarce.
We talked to plenty of old timers with our race promotion at the various FREE cruise nights.
Most of the comments were ; Oh that ol' Mel Larson's place ?
They still open ? I haven't been out there since they started that " go too fast and lose stuff".
We'd manage to drag a few former racers and fans, and some of the younger retro guys out there for our nostalgia deal, but in reality , I think the market for a local strip dried up with the last century...at least in this part of the country.
It's a shame ...but that's how I see it .

[MattConte]

[QUOTE=RobbieRacer;365509I Like Hal but he is a Dirt Biker at heart.
JMO[/QUOTE]
That is not true at all about Hal. Hal is a HUGE lover of drag racing. If you ever saw what is in his little shop out behind his home. You would not say that.

That is my daughter sitting in Hal's front engine dragster. (Get the name in the cowl?)One thing I know about Hal. He has ALL of his heart into that dragstrip. Always had.

[MattConte]

I spent some time in the early 90s back east. saw some GREAT racing at some GREAT tracks. But the first thing I did when I got back to Phoenix. I headed on out the Speedworld (Back then Phoenix Raceway Park. I always liked that name better.) I missed that track. I lived out there for the rest of the 90s. That is my favorite drag strip of all time and places and I am really hating to see it go. No place like it in the world. This really saddens me.
Phoenix will really suck if we loose both tracks.
I never was ever really able to get involved with the drag racing like I would had liked to. Just never had the money. At my age now and income. I do not ever seeing it happening. But at least I could always keep a little of that dream alive with the drag strips being close by. Maybe hoping that one day I could have some sort of a race car to run. But with both tracks gone. I just cannot see it ever happening. Just a big bummer.