If you have ever been there to the national event you would know why.

Gravel pit and dusty, pit spots all around the road course down the hill, hard to get out of there at the end of the day. Starting line faces west so afternoon/evening tree visibility is bad.

Many guys here skip the nationals because you must pre enter, then if it rains it really sux. Division race you show up and pay at the gate.

I've raced the Nat. there for the last 4-5 years. There is very little gravel behind the pro pits. Most of the stock guys pit along there. I thought pitting down the road course was pretty cool. Shady down there, plenty of blackberries to pick. Cool just to be able to shut it off and coast down the hill. Lots of trees and shade everywhere and the air and track are pretty good too. I always noticed the fans pretty much stay for the whole race and don't file in and out of the stands for the fuel cars, just my .02.
It's on my bucket list to win that thing one day. My home town though I can't stand it there anymore. It rained a couple years I was there. Rain shut out the sportsman finals last year.

Let me guess; no rebate of some of the face ticket value for not having a full field.

Well, you're giving yourself plenty of excuses.... I'm sure at most tracks when the big guns roll in, you don't get access to your normal pit spot. Not that your opinion isn't valid, but I know plenty of guys that raced this weekend. I didn't hear any complaints.

What additional, if any, bracket classes did they have?
How was the sportsman, non Pro, turn out?

How about the gravel approaching the staging lanes? Yes coasting down hill to the pit spot is great, it's the climb back up to the staging lanes that has your engine hot. Plus all the extra fuel used for that driving around.

Then what air is your weathestation reading down in that shady hole, that's not where the track is.

But yes you can't win if you don't enter. And the next closest national is Denver or Sonoma.

No additional bracket classes. The only full sportsman class was stock eliminator.

The gravel approaching the staging lanes is maybe 5% of the whole pit area. Mostly Stock and Super Street cars in there. I was lucky enough to get a few astro turf pit mats for free from the Sonoma Nascar race as a lot of us Sonoma guys did. Sucker works great for the gravelly areas. If you are using the same weather station in the same location all weekend and dialing the car from said weather station does it really matter if it's 20' below track elevation? Not for my use it doesn't. The races I have won I've been a LOT better finding a spot with the stop during time trials and leaving the damn thing alone or adjusting for 1 or 2 hundredths anyway. There are times when I should have taken 30 numbers out of the stop but the weather station wasn't telling me that. The track was so good last year that it actually pulled my car down by about 7 hundredths. 7 of the quickest 10 Funny Car ET's were recorded there last year. Not all cars are affected like my slow thing is but no weather station will tell you that.
The drive to the lanes is what the drive is depending on the facility. Some are worse than others and some, like Sonoma, actually make you drive way around and stage in front of the grandstand instead of the normal staging lanes. There is usually so much time between runs at Div. and Nat. events that cooling should never be an issue and never has been with my car. I like the track there in Auburn/Covington and will race there again at some point.
Also, in the fans defense, this race is the same weekend as the hydro races and the long standing Seafair fun on Lake Washington that usually feature the Blue Angels.

I would love to race thee myself. Its one of the tracks on my list I have not made it to yet. As for National events, not a huge fan of racing them really but that's anywhere. It was never worked well into our schedule to go up that far for a race. Woodburn was as close as I ever got.

Definitely should have stayed in the throttle... car slowed and was going 10.908 to the rug. That's racin.

The event isn't perfect, the facility is what it is, this is nothing new. You can race or you can sit at home and cry about it.

I had fun, and we'll try again next year.

That .018 pack would have won a lot of rounds. Making it tight down there will sometimes bite you. Would you rather race at Woodburn or Pacific?

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

They have their pros and cons. Pacific has better track prep, Woodburn is run more efficiently. The traffic between Seattle and Portland is also a bit of a nightmare now so that makes the drive to Woodburn less appealing. At this point there isn't a track I take enough issue with that I wont race at. I've been to Mission, Pacific, Bremerton, Woodburn and Yakima this season and I've won at all 5, and been sent packing at all 5 in the past.

Firebird is my favorite track in the division, but the 500 mile tow prevents me from racing there more than 1-2 times a year.

Firebird is an awesome track for sure. But my wife says I cant go back, the Boise racing gods don't like me apparently. Two years in a row had my car backed into and then caught on fire there..Maybe shes right As far as a National event facility while I have never been to Seattle I cannot imagine it is any worse than Firebird/Wildhorse Pass frankly and for division stuff hard to believe there are any much worse than Fontana

I wish the biggest obstacle to me racing was a gravel pit area down a hill.

I loved Mission and wanna go back there sometime. Never been to Firebird. Guess I'll have to get there too...Fontana isn't terrible. I had good luck there getting to a final so that's probably why for me. Yeah gravel pits can suck but there are worse things. I think the dirt, sheep shyt and grass burrs at Sonoma is about the worst during a Nat.

Woodburn is a great place to race, always like it there, first time was 1985.

Woodburn is a cool facility but the timing equipment isn't the best as it's literally under water half the year. Weird crap with the left lane one year. The track personel and the announcers were pretty crappy to us one year when Andy went to the final in T/D. The race went into darkness which wasn't our fault. They have a yard full of generator lights there and rolled out 3 of them for Andy's 205 mph dragster. He had been running the right lane and when we got back up there they had run a quad all over the starting line area in the right lane only leaving dirty tire tracks all over it. Andy broke out by a lousy thou in the final and lost. Basically having to launch into complete darkness. Pretty shytty if you ask me. I never felt welcome there from being from div. 7 and probably won't go back.

Jay and Jim, father and Son, are a bunch of tight wads when it comes to pay outs
I attended one of the late fall end of the year big races, 177 entry in Pro, book in alcholol funny cars, booked in North west Super charged association and so on. Three day race with extra money to enter a "special bracket race" on Saturday, this was in 2005 and the three day entry for racing on Sunday was $75.00 plus they wanted me to buy one of their track bracket numbers for anther $10.00 even though I had a NHRA division seven Pro bracket completion number
I got beat in the 1/4 finals and went up to get paid and they said they don't pay 1/4 finals or semi finals, just winner and runner up $300.00 to the winner and $150.00 to the runner up with 177 entry in Pro
And those idiots wonder why racers don't come back

The big issue with Fontana is lack of facilities...While it would not affect me usually when I am racing there as I bring my motorhome. However since there is a train switching yard next door it does not make for the best sleeping conditions for sure. But we race the Vette there multiple times a year. The dragster also makes a appearances there throughout the years as well. The lack of facilities, short shut down, and big bumps in one lane keep people away or cause issues. NMCA lost Pro Mod because of the track surface. Seems we can not go a race without someone hitting something. The people that work there are all great, track and tower personnel are awesome. Never an issue there. The issue is the facility itself. One would think with the corporate ownership of the facility and population area it is in it could be MUCH better. I've lived and raced all over the country and to me it is top 5 on the worst tracks I've run. Give me Sac Raceway 50 times over rather than Fontucky...

I always hear a bunch of crap about Sac. as well. The lumpity, bumpy shutdown is pretty gnarly but 250mph cars seem to show up there a few times a year to do their thing. Again 145mph is nothing on these tracks so my stuff isn't the best judge of things. Andy has done well at Fontucky too but I've seen Spitzer cars look worse going down that track. Not sure if CA Speedway is Bruton Smith or not??? You are right in saying that for the area that Fontucky is in, you would think it would be state of the art. Especially with the bada$$ super-speedway right next to it. Obviously there are some bad politics going on there as they had to build a wall for the noise of the track when next door there is a train switching yard. Is there anything more annoying and louder than that? Vegas is by far the best I've been to so you're lucky to call that your home track Al. I just try to stay grateful that I'm able to do as much as I have for the last 4-5 years. Probably going to give it up soon and hopefully do a little more for the T/S and T/D guys I love so much.

Fontana is owned by ISC, which is controlled by the France family. The NASCAR founder. With some other corporate partners like Penske. SO there is no reason for it to not have a better facility. They own 13 facilities one of which is RT66, which is a killer facility.

LVMS is certainly a state of the art track. IMO it is underused for sure and extremely expensive for other events. NMCA tried once and wont likely ever be back. When we talked to Rollie(nmca boss)he told us he can rent Fontana and run our entire schedule of races there for less than one even at LVMS. I have heard similar echoed from a couple other promoters too.

Dave I am sure you have seen Andy's racepal data from Fontana runs. The bumps should be pretty evident, but maybe not do much in a 270" car Don't get me wrong, happy the place is there and the track is open. We had a couple years not long ago when LVMS was the ONLY track in the area. When Fontana was in its legal battle and then when Firebird/Wild Horse pass closed as well as Speedworld. It was a bad deal for sure. Although we had good car counts in Vegas

You can tell me what you think of it next week