The traditional fire-up was as exciting for the race fans as it was for the racers. The crowd would do a countdown until the roar of the motors would drown them out.
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Photo above: The traditional fire-up was as exciting for the race fans as it was for the racers. The crowd would do a countdown until the roar of the motors would drown them out. |
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Alaska's Jim Moore garaged his beautiful Big Kahuna Funny Car in the Seattle area just to be close to the action. He also competed at the 32-car show in Portland. |
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The late Kenney "The Action Man" Goodell was one of the best at performing lengthy burnouts when eighth-mile burnouts were the norm. |
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Al Bergler from Shelby Township, Mich., brought his Motown Shaker Mustang to Seattle for the first 64 Funny Car event. With the huge crowd on its feet, Bergler showed them a long and smokey burnout. ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF RUSS GRIFFITH |
After a few years, the Seafair Funny Car event format was really gaining some momentum. The fields were expanding and bigger crowds were packing the grandstands each time. No doubt this was a real confidence builder for promoter Bill Doner.
Fans that stayed to the end of the '72 Seafair event were stunned to hear that next year's race would have twice as many cars, which translated to double the action. It was unfathomable.
So, Doner had a year to gather 64 Funny Cars. What a massive project it would be. Everyone knew he would need some long-haul travelers as there just weren't enough quality nitro cars on the West Coast. And he had to come up with some front-line stars to make this whole thing work.
How in the world do you get some far-away cars to travel across the country for one race when they were routinely running two, three or even four times a week back home? Doner would have to pay them some strong money to miss out on all of those events -- unless he could get them more dates at other Northwest tracks. That's really the only way this would all work.
Although Doner could be very convincing -- that's VERY CONVINCING -- he would need to arrange several race dates before and after the "Big One" in Seattle to get the big hitters involved. He would need other race track operators to assist in booking the better east coast cars for them to come to make the journey.
Lo and behold, timing was everything. The City of Portland-owned PIR racetrack became a logical host track in 1973 when I went to work for them. Talk about perfect timing. Doner was on it in a heartbeat with a signed contract, and we established a 32-car Funny Car show on the PIR schedule the week before Seattle. Portland International Raceway was in need of a promoter that could generate large crowds and they only had to look a little to the north to find one.
The Portland facility was in need of many improvements prior to the July race date so the city went to work installing fencing, asphalt throughout the pit area, a bigger PA system, a huge timing and announcing tower, permanent restrooms and many other items of need. The work was mostly completed, lightning fast, just in time for the '73 racing season.
In one of the years, a rental agreement was also put together for the eighth-mile track in Eugene, Ore. -- Balboa Park Drag Strip. That facility would have a Funny Car event on Friday night before Seattle to assist in booking the cars.
It would take all of these racetracks together, along with facilities in Canada, Spokane and Boise to assemble enough race dates for these front-line cars to make it all work
The logistics of all of this would drive anybody insane. Can you imagine making agreements with a huge throng of cars and then keeping track of where they were and what is owed to who and how much, etc.? There just weren't any written contracts back in these days -- it was just Doner and his deals. When, where, what and how much? What a juggling act. How did he ever do it?
His briefcase was just crammed full of notes and scribbles as he attempted to keep track of this massive logistical chaos.
Doner also wrote, voiced and produced all the radio commercials for both the Seattle and Portland markets. And, in those years, we had to distribute all the dubs to each radio station in both markets, along with updates. That also was very complex.
Different than the multi-day national events of modern day, these one-night races were like going to a wild movie; except it was outdoors, the ground would shake, the smell of nitro would be nonstop and the drama unfolded right in front of your eyes. These ultra-popular floppers provided ground-pounding excitement under the stars at break-neck speed. What a fabulous combination!
It was a special thrill to bring in the biggest stars of the sport and then line them up with the best locals. Not only did it encourage area racers by giving them a shot at the best in the sport but it greatly expanded the press coverage. There's nothing like turf wars to generate lots of excitement, and there was plenty of that going on.
The lineup of the stars of the sport in Funny Car racing was unparalleled. Ed "Ace" McCulloch, "240" Gordie Bonin, Danny "On The Gas" Ongais, "Jungle" Jim Liberman, Tom "the Mongoose" McEwen, Don "the Snake" Prudhomme, John Force, Jerry Ruth, Twig Zeigler, Gary Densham, "Big" Jim Dunn, Mike Miller, Gene "the Snowman" Snow, Pat Foster, Rich Rogers, Mike Mitchell, "'Lil" John Lombardo, Jim Adolph, Rodney Flourney, Kenney Goodell, Dale Pulde, "Flash" Gordon Mineo, John Collins, Al Bergler, the eight-car Cavalcade of Coca-Cola Funny Car Team, and many, many more were all part of the scene over the years. Whew!
Funny Cars at night in Seattle became extremely popular for race fans and showcased Doner's superior promotional efforts.
"If some is good, more is better!" That was just one of Doner's mottos.
The nightly format was beyond belief. At 5 p.m., a local rock band would entertain as the Funny Cars started lining up on the strip. At the designated time, and trust me it took a huge coordinated effort to get all the cars in place, we'd have the traditional fire-up complete with a boisterous countdown by the massive crowd. A mass gridlock of Funny Cars attempting to return to the pits would then get underway with the nitro cars heading straight to the staging lanes.
The cars were then prepared and for a 6 o'clock start when side-by-side burnouts as long as each driver could muster were encouraged. Many of the guys went well past the eighth mile, adding to the showmanship of the teams. The longer the burnouts, the louder the crowd got as they cheered the teams to outdo each other.
After hours and hours of side-by-side runs, the two quickest nitro cars and the two best alcohol cars would square off for the final of the night...just prior to 11 p.m.
This mass hysteria had gone on nonstop for nearly five hours. There was so much nitro and smoke from burnouts that a fog would hang over the facility all evening. This event was so big it was often called, "Woodstock on Wheels." It was truly drag racing showmanship at its very best.
"There will never be anything like it again," Doner said recently, and sadly, he's probably right.
