Official: Firebird International Raceway closing april 2013

[Jeff Lee]

1st I've heard of this...any more info?

[Greg Barsamian]

They were running ASA trucks & Bondurant Road Course cars there on Saturday using the 1/4 mile as a straightaway.

There was construction equipment in the area around the Casino on I-10!
I asked a few spectators about the closure, no-one there had heard anything?

Cars, Boats, Bikes, You name it, the facility is AWESOME!
Hopefully it will remain a racing complex

[Pat Cook]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lee

Sheriff Joe is the one who busted the party at Speed World!

Pat,
I grew up racing at Speed World back when it was Phoenix Raceway. Started in '78 or '79 after Beeline closed down. It's always been a great track in my opinion but I never liked it when it turned into Import night (as in ALL night) with DJ's, Bikini contests and mud / Jello wrestling. Now I like pretty girls just like everyone else here but I stayed after a race once to witness one of these events. To say it involves the dredges of society would be a complement. If track management can't see drugs and alcohol are part of the scene, they obviously have a blind eye.

That really sucks.....its that kinda qwap that gives drag racing a bad name. Bob Curly wouldn't put up with it.

Jeff, I worked the starting line at Speedworld when it was Mel Larsons,. Dial in were to the nearest tenth, there was a small aluminum box that had 2 rotory dials that the dials were set to. The Freeman brothers (Jesse & Joe) got really mad at me because I took to much time to put their dial into the box.....the next weekend I was sweeping the starting line and water the burn out box...

Oh yeah that was when they were driving 63 Nova's called "Bumble Bee" they were painted yellow and black and 4 speeds, old 4 speeds like muncies...

I think that is why i like that track, I grew up there....in a drag racing way

[Jeff Lee]

I started when Mike had control. I can't think of his name right now...dangit! It was In 1978 or 1979. Mike Donnelley! Bob Curly followed Mike.
He had a great bracket program that encouraged new racers by giving a trophy to everybody that won 1st round. He did that because by and large, that was the hardest thing for most newbies to accomplish. Of course if you won the finals, you got a much bigger trophy. I've got a lot of those first round trophies in Dad's attic (I hope).
I used to tack pictures there. I had a 35mm with various lenses and Mike never said nothing if I stood just past the 60' mark and stretched a leg onto the track as far as I could reach to get a front end shot as the car was launching. I need to scan those prints someday and get them on here. A few were pretty good. Now all I can operate is my iPhone camera.
And of course we could do burnouts while holding the car in the water box at the quarter panel or even worse, maybe a finger or two along the lip of the rear quarter wheel opening. Yikes!
But one of my best experiences was he let me and Brian Griffey borrow the track for the day FREE and we had the use of the timers. We did everything we could think of to make better ET's. Today, that's a $1500 minimum, if not $5,000 fee!
I know those were the good old days but I surely don't want to see that track go.
And another...I remember the Freeman's but it was when they had that Camaro. Wasn't it a Modified? I ended up working at Lou Grubb Chevrolet as a line mechanic and one of the guys bought that car as a roller. I remember him putting a tired 307 in the car just to move it around and he reved it to the moon and dumped the clutch. It actually pulled the wheels off the ground!
Remember the Knoblock / Yancer / ? (can't remember the third guys name) white mid-year Modified 'Vette? That car got me wanting to build a class car more than anything else in my life. And about 25 years latter Bud Yancer is my engine builder. I think he's one of the smartest engine builders there is. Just slower than molasses on a cold morning.

[aspen7709]

Just got back from a meeting called by Chuck Sundstrom. Firebird operations WILL CEASE as of April 1 2013. However the Gila River Indian tribe is in talks with NHRA to reopen the facility after making improvements. Charlie Allen and Co. Will NOT be building a different facility and WILL NOT be involved with the possible new venture. Chuck could not speculate as to when or if the tribe will reopen the track or who will be in charge. As far as current staff goes NONE of them will be working with the tribe at this time. Firebird will be running a compressed schedule and will be feilding a Summit Series team for the ET finals in 2013 having all the races before April 1.

Long story short the indians are taking over lets hope them and NHRA see eye to eye and no one gets greedy or cheap.......
Word on the street NHRA wants ALOT OF improvements.......
"We shall neither help nor hinder,but wait and see"

Kenny Newsome ?/sa stock eliminator

[Shadylane]

"Remember the Knoblock / Yancer / ? (can't remember the third guys name) white mid-year Modified 'Vette? That car got me wanting to build a class car more than anything else in my life. And about 25 years latter Bud Yancer is my engine builder. I think he's one of the smartest engine builders there is. Just slower than molasses on a cold morning."

The third person involved in the Corvette was Joe Faulkner (the driver most of the time). The engine was a de-stroked small block around 288 CI if I remember correctly. This picture was taken at Pomona in 83 or 84. After one pass Joe showed me the tattle tale on the tach (pre electronic) and it showed just shy of 10,500. Joe was good friend and previously raced a 66 El Camino in partnership with Bob DeYoung.

Kelly Lane

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by BobOrme

Gary, if you haven't been to Bandimere in the last few years, you would be amazed at how many new homes have been built on the other side of the valley south of the Alameda Parkway. It's only a matter of time before some people who buy or rent those homes with a direct view of the drag strip will start trying to change the zoning designation of the Bandimere property. If or when they manage to force the closure of Bandimere, some of the same people will be complaining that they can hear music from Red Rocks.

DIA was inevitable. Stapleton couldn't handle the ever expanding air traffic and had no options for growth. It was better to build a much larger airport and close Stapleton than try to keep it open while still building a much larger airport ala Chicago Midway and O'Hare.

Construction of a NASCAR track with a drag strip next to it (a "new" Bandimere Speedway) close to DIA was stopped by the vote of 184 people in Adams county who were supposedly opposed to the facilities due to more automobile traffic in the area. That was a very small tail that wagged a very large dog.

Yes Bob, I've been by there in recent years, and it bums me out the new homes built near Bandimere Speedway, but since John Bandimere Jr. (and Sporty...aka John III), put up a credible argument about why it needed to stay there to thus have that C470 highway built next to it, instead of going through the facility (the original plans), back around the time that massive expansion that created their current timing tower/suite building, evolved from.

As for Stapleton & DIA, I'm puzzled as to why it needed to be built, when Stapleton had not only their original two east/west runways (like Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport), but they had three north/south runways that extended north of I-70 east of Quebec. Given that Denver is only the nations 27th largest city, and Phoenix is either 6th or 7th on the list, I'm surprised that Denver needed such a large airport, when in reality Phoenix needs it more, because they have many more residents than does Denver...bigger city, smaller airport? I don't get that one, except to say that Denver made the mistake of letting private residence be near the airport plane paths, and Phoenix was smart enough to not allow that to happen. Your expanding air traffic comment has some merit, but I remember hearing many times while I lived there that neighbors would complain about the noise of the planes, yet they chose to buy houses that were in Park Hill and Aurora that the planes flew over or near to...these people should've bought houses somewhere else if the planes were an issue for them. :<

As for that vote that stopped "World Park" from happening, I'll never like that one since people associated with that now-defunct "Pikes Peak International Raceway" (south of Colorado Springs), and Former Governor Richard Lamm's son (as well as a Wall Street Investor, with ties to the raceway), helped smear what I believe was "Amendment 2B", which would've allowed the building of that facility to occur, but people were complaining about the potential noise there, and "FALSELY" claimed it would do harm to the horses nearby. That was a bunch of CRAP, because an Equestrian Center, a skeet shooting range, and even "Burt Automotive Group", plus other family friendly things were going to be built out there. Moreover, there's a horse-riding ranch near Bandimere's current location, and they have no problems with the race track (even during the Mopar Mile High Nationals)!!! I laugh now that the lowsy track is closed and has been collecting cobwebs for several years.....they got what they deserved....

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Any racer who has lived in So Cal for 50 years or so could tell you about race track closures.Nothing new anywhere else.

[GarysZ24]

Greg, I don't like race track closures anywhere...especially when residential development messes up the efforts of a track to stay operational. Colorado has lost a few historical tracks as well, and I was hoping when I moved here (Arizona), that Fontana would've kept itself going as a regular Div. 7 track, with a divisional event and/or the Jegs Sports Nationals on the schedule as well....although I preferred the divisional living here in metro Phoenix, due to it's being much closer/easier to get to than Sonoma, or Fallon. Back east they have many tracks in a specific area of regions/states (it helps that many of the eastern states are geographically smaller than out west too), however we don't have that luxury out west, so when any of our states lose a track, it hurts us worse than it would eastern racers. I'm sorry to know about the other historical SoCal tracks, but again I'm equally bummed about any track losses anywhere.

[z28kid]

I'm in an organization that hosts the ASA speedtruck races and we are waiting just like everyone else on the news.

only people that really know whats going on are people who are working on it directly. I see everything else are rumors and gossip.

P.s I was at the event in Oct. we ran "mondo" configuration. First time for ASA to run that configuration.
Just last weekend an Off Road group was running over on the east track area. NASA was running main, Proauto was running West and this weekend Drag boats

If you guys would like more details check out proautosports. Lets hope FIR stays open