Sonoma Changes

[Dan Bennett]

I worked at a lot of tracks for DRC, small, large, and sometimes a bit scary.


Sonoma was the worst major event track I ever saw. The media center was totally blocked from seeing much of the track at all. Though it was a great location, it was clear they weren't that interested in drag racing even back then.


Others that come to mind are Seattle and Norwalk. The building at the starting line was suites only, and if you were covering the race you were working in a rented construction trailer at the end of the track. Even if you stood at one of those high, narrow windows you could only see the tops of the cars over the wall. That made it hard to add any useful content on any run.

Norwalk was a special case that at least made changes. For years, there was no media center at all. Story I heard (totally unconfirmed) was that Bill Sr. was not a fan of the press after he read an article he didn't like. Things got a bit better years later when he rented an RV which was parked alongside the spectator side grandstand. And eventually he created a real place to work and give good coverage.


So a bit off the topic, but maybe some insight into why some reports are pretty dry and only include numbers from the clocks.