Another part of the equation was complicated by the fact that Portland International Raceway no longer could have any major drag races after 1986. That wonderful, close-in PIR location that allowed for easy access and large crowds also impacted the area with loud noise. After about 15 or so years of pressure from the local neighborhoods, the City of Portland eliminated major drag races in 1986. All the smaller e.t bracket races there must have mufflers on all the race vehicles. When the end came for the 32 Funny Car event in Portland it also affected the 64-car show in Seattle. Attracting the best racecars was getting really hard to do after the major races stopped in Portland that year.
Back then, contracts with racers were few and far between. During the winter, a racer and the promoter would exchange phone calls to lock in a schedule for the next year. Over-the-phone deals were made and the racers would show, make the necessary runs, and the promoter would compensate the racer, as per the verbal deal. Pretty simple – or, at least, it would seem.
In some cases, the professional racer would make a verbal commitment to race at a particular event and then would begin gathering points at NHRA events early in the season. By the time mid-summer rolled around it would become obvious to that racer that continuing to gather NHRA championship points was a smarter move and so some cancellations would take place.
Those efforts complicated the promoters’ plans to produce a major race with the best cars available. I remember one time where a letter from an attorney had to remind the racer that a verbal deal is valid . . . and that changed the mind of the pro racer and he reconsidered reneging on his deal with the race track. He decided to compete at 64 Funny Cars as promised. A little leverage was required to protect this huge Seattle event.
For the three-day 1988 64 Funny Car event at SIR, we had verbal deals with Raymond Beadle and the Blue Max along with John Force as two of the cars for the “Big Show”. In his early years, Force was a match-racing guy, often scheduling as many events as possible in each week . . . no matter where they were. As I recall, he had booked his funny car in Englishtown, N.J., the weekend prior to our late June event in Seattle. It would be a coast-to-coast tow for Force and his team. Understand that it was just gut wrenching during that entire week with radio and television ads blaring away with John Force coming to Seattle and me knowing that he was coming from that far away for our event. You had to ask yourself, “What would happen if their truck blew a motor and they didn’t make it to Seattle on time?” I tried not to think about that too much. Can you imagine how much heat we would get if Force didn’t make it . . . ugh!! I would have had to hide under my desk during the whole event!
Making a deal with some of the pro racers was, often times, a little tough to do. With John Force there was always some humor that made things a little easier to deal with him. He is Mr. Supersales and he hustles every deal he gets . . . and I do mean “hustle.” During that week, he phoned me three or four times from the roadside and wanted to renegotiate the deal because the truck permits were costing him a fortune as he commuted across the continental USA. I remember one call was from Kansas as he was leaving the truck weigh station with his famous mouth going a hundred miles an hour, “Rockstad, I’ve got to have more money. All these truck permits are killing me!” I told him to just “GET HERE” and we’d work it out. The good part of all the calls was I knew he was holding up the bargain and that he would make it. Understand also, Force always honored his deals. Later that week, the raceway secretary handed me the phone and said, “It’s Force, of course,” as he entered Washington state. I took a huge breath of relief as he had more than enough time to pull it off. I told him we’d talk about his “deal” when he arrived.
When Force got to the racetrack on Friday, he looked like he had walked all the way across the U.S. He was a whipped puppy that’s for sure. I got concerned that he might not be able to drive the race car as he looked so exhausted, but somehow he gathered enough strength to get it all together. (As he probably had done many, many times before.)
During the qualifying run on Saturday, Team Force broke a drive line and couldn’t make the call when the funny cars were supposed to run. Later, after all the cars had run, Force did make a run, just to cover his “deal”, after making the repairs to the drive train. Because the broken drive shaft didn’t allow him to run as planned, he was at a disadvantage in the “deal” at the end of the event. Although totally worn out, he was almost smiling as we settled and he drove off. I’d have to say we both learned a few lessons during that weekend. I could certainly see having a race car driver drive the full length of the USA doesn’t make a lot of sense for either party. Driving from coast-to-coast in a few days didn’t make much sense for Force either.
It was obvious to me after that tedious time that I wouldn’t continue the 64 Funny Cars event. Attempting to book in racers who have to travel so far could only lead to disaster for them or leave our Seattle event without the quality lineup the event was known for since 1972. After 17 years of ground pounding excitement, 1988 became the final year of the event that meant so much to so many -- 64 Funny Cars!
ROCKY’S ROAD: Next edition - Snake and the rare photo. |
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