Speedway to host NHRA drag racing

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 12:31 p.m.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway officials trotted out virtually everybody except P.T. Barnum to formally announce their April 6-9, 2000, National Hot Road Association event.

In the absence of Barnum, they brought in John Force, eight-time NHRA Funny Car champion, whose father once worked for the famed circus promoter.

And the gregarious Force stole the show -- and no doubt sold many in the assembled crowd of 200 on the merits of staging an NHRA national event in Las Vegas.

Kind of a drag

A quick look at Las Vegas' NHRA national event, formally announced Tuesday.

WHAT: Inaugural National Hot Rod Association national event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, one of 23 NHRA points races

WHEN: April 6-9, 2000

CARS: The five professional categories of NHRA Winston Drag Racing competition -- Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Truck and Pro Stock Motorcycle -- plus eight sportsman categories

TICKETS: On sale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September

"I got the shakes right now just thinking about this town," Force said. "Las Vegas is my favorite city. I know about Howard Hughes -- or was it Bugsy Siegel, I don't know -- one of them found this desert and fixed it. ... and now when (LVMS owner Bruton Smith) comes out here in this desert with the NHRA, you're going to have everything that you could ever imagine."

Smith, who already has built one state-of-the-art drag-racing facility in Bristol, Tenn., plans to top that effort with an estimated $10 million drag strip at LVMS that will seat between 30,000 and 40,000 people.

Among the unique design features of the LVMS dragway will be luxury suites that will line the top of the west grandstand. LVMS will be the only drag-racing facility with luxury boxes spanning the length of the drag strip as opposed to building them behind the starting line.

"For so long, (suite holders) have watched the cars go away from them and not really seen the competition or who's winning," said Devin Horihan, who is overseeing the development and construction of the facility.

"We're going to give them the opportunity to see the sport as it truly is, the close side-by-side racing."

Horihan said construction will resume on the drag strip -- which was begun in 1996 by former track owners Ralph Englestad and Bill Bennett and ex-LVMS president Richie Clyne -- in mid-August and will be completed early next spring.

Although Tuesday's announcement did not come as a surprise -- it had been widely reported last month that LVMS would stage an NHRA national event next year -- one of the rumored "blockbuster" announcements failed to come to pass.

Reports that the Speedway would open as the first-ever four-lane drag strip were premature, according to NHRA president Dallas Gardner.

The facility will be built to eventually incorporate a four-lane drag strip, but will open next year with the traditional two lanes.

"The infrastructure (for four lanes) will be built, but this will be a two-lane drag strip," Gardner said. "We have studied four lanes for a number of years and have no conclusions or directions on it.

"At some point in time, this will give us the opportunity to maybe field-test the concept and determine if there is some future value to four lanes. At this point, it's premature to speculate where we're going with that."

Smith said he still believes four-lane drag strips are the wave of the future because it will reduce the time between races and make the NHRA more attractive to live television.

"It's something that a lot of us think should be done, but we're not going to do anything that the NHRA does not want done," Smith said. "(When) they're sold on the four lanes, we'll build four lanes."

The NHRA also reconsidered holding the Las Vegas date the weekend of April 14-16 next year after a Sun story pointed out that date would conflict with the hugely successful Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Long Beach Grand Prix.

Tom Compton, executive vice president and general manager of the NHRA, confirmed that the date was moved up a week after learning of the conflict.

Holding the Las Vegas NHRA date on the same weekend as the Long Beach Grand Prix, which drew a record crowd of 102,000 this year, would have hurt Las Vegas' fan and media attendance from the Southern California area.

"That was definitely a consideration," Compton said. "There is definitely a crossover (in fans of both CART and the NHRA) and that crossover is growing. As motor sports' popularity grows, as motor sports goes more mainstream, I think you'll see more and more crossover."

Gardner, who has overseen the NHRA since 1984, said in order to foster growth in drag racing, it was imperative that the series expand into markets such as Las Vegas.

"I think it was only a matter of time until NHRA Winston Drag Racing came to Las Vegas," Gardner said. "NHRA Winston Drag racing is the fastest and quickest and most powerful form of motor sport on the planet and Las Vegas is the most exciting and fastest moving city on the planet and they belong together.

"Speedway Motorsports (is) building a facility here that we think fits the style of the city and the NHRA. The facility that's being constructed here is the latest of a number of facilities ... designed to take the sport into the next millennium."