NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Pacific Raceways (aka Seattle International Raceway) remains one of the great legacy tracks in NHRA history and one of just a handful that has hosted NHRA national events in six decades, from the 1975-80 NHRA FallNationals through the current embodiment of the event, the NHRA Northwest Nationals, which returned the track to the national event schedule in 1988. Discounting the two cancelled COVID-year races (2020 and 2021), the fabled jewel of the Northwest has hosted 41 NHRA national events.

Only Indy, Pomona, Gainesville, and Denver hosted events in all of those decades, which deserves a celebration as we prepare to head back to the Great Northwest next weekend.

Last year, I recounted some of the great moments from the six years of the FallNationals, and this week, it’s time to look at some great and wild moments from the first 10 events after the tour returned at SIR and established the event as a year-after-year stage for history in the making.

Darrell Gwynn set the Top Fuel NHRA national record at NHRA’s return to Seattle in 1988, running a 5.052 en route to winning the event, capped with a victory over Gene Snow, who fireballed his engine. Gwynn was in his second (and last) year of a Budweiser sponsorship. Pro Stock winner Bob Glidden (7.319) and Funny Car’s Don Prudhomme (5.305) also set national records that year.

In 1991, Joe Amato became the first driver to sweep the Western Swing in what was just the third iteration of the three-race mini marathon, and back when Seattle was the third and final leg. “Joe Cool” iced Tommy Johnson Jr. in the Denver final, Lori Johns in the Sonoma final, and Tom McEwen in the Seattle final. McEwen, who blatantly red-lighted against Amato in that final, was the last person that summer to win before Amato’s hat trick, scoring his final event win in Englishtown.

Privateer Funny Car racer Wyatt Radke earned the rather unfortunate nickname of “Fry-it Radke” thanks to some hairy rides, including this barnburner in the first round at the 1991 event in the Chicago Trapper entry.

Seven years after Danny Sullivan famously won the 1985 Indy 500 after a mid-race spin, Michael Brotherton and Gwynn’s Coors Light team kinda did the same thing at the 1992 Seattle race. After putting the car on its side and doing some donuts on its final qualifying pass, the Ken Veney-led team repaired the car overnight, and Brotherton beat Robert Reehl, Shelly Anderson, Cory McClenathan, and Eddie Hill for his first and only national event victory.

Other than famously getting punched in the face by Ed McCulloch at a 1970s match race, the late “Flash Gordon” Mineo’s other uh-oh Seattle moment also came at the 1992 event when the engine came unzipped at halftrack, leading to this inferno, from which he escaped unscathed.

The 1993 event should have been renamed the “Johnson Nationals” after, from left, Blaine Johnson (Top Alcohol Dragster), Tommy Johnson Jr. (Top Fuel), and Kurt Johnson (Pro Stock) all reached the winners’ circle.

John Force became the second Western Swing sweeper in 1994. He beat Chuck Etchells in both the Denver and Sonoma finals then archrival Al Hofmann in Seattle. Check out young Brittany and Ashley Force in the winner’s circle with Dad. The only Force daughter not pictured, Courtney, was the only one of the three sisters to later win in Seattle, winning in Top Alcohol Dragster in 2009 and Funny Car in 2012.

The amazing Dan Fletcher also swept the Swing in 1994, becoming the first (and still only) Sportsman driver to accomplish the feat, doing it in Super Stock with his vaunted Checkmate Camaro. Fletcher would add another sweep in 2013 that was more amazing, as after winning in Super Stock in Denver and Stock in Sonoma, he won in both classes in Seattle in his first and only double-up victory. Four Wallys in three weeks!

The first of Ron Capps’ 77 national event wins came in his lone Top Fuel victory at the 1995 event in Roger Primm’s dragster, which came in a weather-delayed Tuesday final in which he defeated Cory McClenathan in the final.

Shelly Anderson and her brother, Randy, shared the Seattle winner’s circle in 1996 after respective victories in Top Fuel and Top Alcohol Funny Car. It was Shelly’s fourth and final Top Fuel win and Randy’s 16th and final in Alcohol Funny Car, though he would go on to add two nitro Funny Car wins in 1997.

Cory McClenathan, left, became only the second Top Fuel driver to sweep the Western Swing with his victory in 1997. Cory Mac beat a trio of past and future world champs: Tony Schumacher in Denver, Scott Kalitta in Sonoma, and Gary Scelzi in Seattle. And why shouldn’t he? Look at that team, which included crew chief greats Mike Green, center, and Mike “Zippy” Neff.

In the ensuing years, the race continued to add highlights, from Del Worsham ending an eight-year drought with his Funny Car victory in 1999 — his first victory since winning twice as a rookie in 1991 — to more Western Swing sweeps by Larry Dixon (2003), Greg Anderson (2004), Tony Schumacher (2008), and Antron Brown (2009) with Seattle as the middle leg. Tony Bartone’s Funny Car win in 2008 was a special moment, and not just because the victory marked the first Pro win for the likable “T-Bone” after collecting 28 previous Wallys in a very successful championship-winning career in alcohol cars, but it was another trip to the winner’s circle for car owner “Big Jim” Dunn, his first in almost a decade (Frank Pedregon, 1999 Indy).

And who could forget 2019, when John Force clambered over a chainlink fence to join the fans in celebration of his milestone 150th career win, which was followed by his protégé Austin Prock’s first win in Top Fuel? Or Gaige Herrera last year, becoming the first Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to sweep the Western Swing?

The track may have a new name — Pacific Raceways — but the DNA is pure Seattle International Raceway, and the stories and legacy of the place envelop you on every trip there. Over the years, I’ve published a lot of articles about the track and its events that you might also enjoy. 

• Seattle in the '70s, Part 1 | Seattle in the '70s, Part 2
  Northwest photographer Herman Marchetti shares his Seattle photos from the '70s
• Seattle 64 Funny Cars, 1976 | More Seattle 64 Funny Cars stories
  A look back at one of the Northwest's greatest events
• The Seattle Time Machine​​​​ | A Kean memory
  Reader Al Kean reminisces about shooting photos at Seattle in the '70s
• Seattle: My kind of place
  Musings on the great Northwest track

If you're going to be at the Seattle event this year, look me up. I never miss the event, always eager to soak up the old-school feel of the track and bask in its memories.

Phil Burgess can be reached at pburgess@nhra.com

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