Additions and cancellations once again rock the NHRA Camping World Series schedule for the 2021 season.
The NHRA’s normal Camping World Drag Racing Series season starter, the Lucas Oil Winternationals, will be held this year in the middle of summer. And that summer classic, NHRA’s Northwest Nationals, won’t be on the 2021 schedule after all.
The changes wrought by COVID-19 pandemic are tough to quantify. Tracks lost – for either the year or forever, schedules changed, rules amended for security and safety – mean professional drag racing just doesn’t look the same as it did in 2019. Whether that’s a good thing or not will be determined by the number of fans who show up for schedule-adjusted races, or in 2022 for races that weren’t able to run this year.
Since NHRA returned to racing in July of 2020, fan accommodation has been quite good. With everyone checked at the door for temperature, with masks available on the midway and often at team pits, with social distancing taking place – for the most part – except when start-ups bring all nitro fans running toward the sound and the smell, drag racing has done well during the pandemic. While there were fewer races last year, there was enthusiasm for the sport at every single venue.
It will be interesting to see how many folks show up at Pomona in the middle of summer to watch the “Winternationals” at NHRA’s acknowledged ancestral home dragstrip, also the site of its museum. The area surrounding NHRA’s Fairplex racetrack has been used as a testing and vaccination center; as more Californians become members of the vaccinated, it isn’t needed as much as it had been. And now Southern California, and particularly Los Angeles County, is on the rebound and in the “yellow” tier of pandemic restrictions, the lowest level yet.
The loss of the Seattle race didn’t sit well with either fans located in the northwest area of the United States, with fans who might have traveled across the border from Canada and with the track, Pacific Raceways. According to the track’s general Manager, the fact that Washington State’s governor had announced a statewide opening for businesses on June 30th gave him some hope, which was quickly quashed. “As we got into the details,” John Ramsey said, “we couldn’t get a guarantee from the state or the county that an event of this size would be allowed.
“There are a number of factors that go into our ability to host a national event like this, such as whether fans are vaccinated or not, level of ICU beds occupied, the percentage of state vaccinations and meeting the county’s strict protocols. Since we couldn’t get that guarantee,” the general manager continued, “we unfortunately cannot hold the Northwest Nationals this year.” Unable to wait any longer to get definitive responses from Governor Jay Inslee, Ramsey had to be satisfied with the knowledge he’ll be hosting fans on July 29-31 of 2022 instead of this year, ceding his scheduled 2021 date to Pomona.
And through these actions, Pomona will now become the third leg of NHRA’s Western Swing, following Denver and Sonoma with their events occurring one week after the other, and starting with the Dodge//SRT Mile-High NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil July 16-18, moving to the NHRA Sonoma Nationals the following weekend, July 23-25 and then off to Pomona for the hotter than normal Lucas Oil Winternationals on July 30-August 1st.
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