The drag strip was always run through the track which is owned by NASCAR corporate, and relied on their NHRA partnership for the track insurance policy. When outside events were hosted the facility was rented including the staff and equipment etc.

Starting shortly after March 2020 they fired all their employees, sold/moved out all the drag strip equipment and supplies, and made the property essentially a storage yard. Even if a full track rental were to happen, the track would’ve needed probably a couple weeks of full time work and $$$$ to revive it, and still the pits were full of other junk being stored.

This is a massive devastating loss for the community – especially bracket racing – but a major reason the drag strip at Fontana was a failure is the disconnect between what people want, and what was actually offered.

For drag racing to survive in Socal there desperately needs to be a place to run that isn’t saddled by NHRA regulations, corporate inefficiency and bureaucracy, and the burden of a multi-million dollar facility.

Yeah sure – for bracket racing to continue we need an NHRA style track with prep, lights, timing system etc, but really we really just need a strip of road where people are allowed to take their cars out and have fun without being bothered by LEO, or bothering anyone else with the noise. The ability to run noprep/lights out/street car style races that’re drawing all the crowds in the rest of the country would be amazing too. This primarily is where the money and excitement in drag racing is today.

As terrible as it is for the bracket racers, Fontana/Irwindale/Bakersfield/Barona – none of these tracks fill the void that will actually get people off the street and having fun in a responsible and safe environment. 9 and 10 second cars are standard off the showroom today. You think all these cars with a few bolt-ons making 1000+ horsepower today have cut up their car to put in a 10 point cage with certification, seat, harnesses, window nets, SFI balancer, flywheel, trans shield etc etc etc? No – these cars are still perfectly capable street driven cars and will never be built to NHRA regulations.

These fast street cars are still all going to be doing highway pulls to 150+ mph on the street at night because there is nowhere else to do it, and having Fontucky open or not didn’t make a difference there.

This is a massive missed opportunity to capitalize on the growth and resurgence of interest in drag racing everywhere else in the country.

Since I don’t know you, I’m confident you don’t know me, my family or our history. Trolling me with that comment makes your opinion irrelevant.

Would you run it like your cousin’s business Sevenly? Or his fake school? Because Partridge in charge of a business doesn’t really give me a lot of confidence.

I also have had nothing but positive experiences there, and deeply appreciate that the land is provided by the tribe for such use. Just know that if you’re a non-member on the reservation and some unattended belonging disappears, as long as that item stays on the res’ you have no recourse there, they are the law-keepers of their own land. That affects which kind of outsider businesses work and which don’t, and it’s not a complaint just a warning about a deal which is not widely abused but exists all the same. As with the casino, the entrance guard booth exists partly to manage local trouble-makers who might wish to take advantage, so that business reputation is not affected.