Folks Of Interest Project Street Legal: Drag Racing Back at Terminal Island in so-cal

So, we had Donald Galaz on the podcast (free to stream, listen, or download) with his plans for a community based drag strip back at Terminal Island....for everyone. He needs all of our help. If you can spend 2 mins of your time to sign the petition here that would be awesome.

not convinced? listen here. It is a good cause with good people involved.

Again, free. We just want to support the cause and get more boots on the ground.

 

Bump

 

Very worthy cause , it worked before and could again. I think the Harbor Comm. was the fly n the ointment when Willie ran it. I know Angel and Richard Heath / Full Throttle News had tried to clear a path but nothing came . Good Luck !

 

are we all gonna say "those were the days of so cal drag racing"?
sign the petition. its a friggin island zoned for industrial commerce.
bookmark the facebook page and tell your club members.

 

So Cal desperately needs a place to race, this would be so awesome, it would be cool to be close to where Lions was....I remember racing there in the early 90s, had a crazy lil hump at about 1000 feet....

 

I'm all for it and will sign the petition, but this has been an on going saga for 20 years. Good luck.

 

Willie burned a lot of bridges towards the end with the harbor commision

 

Lots of History at the docks. Would be great to see it start up again

 

Do it for Wille. He'd be so proud.

 

Not to burst anyone's "Big Willie bubble", but I'm pretty sure he was the majority of the problem, not the Harbor Commision. A good friend of mines Aunt WAS THE HARBOR COMMISIONER. The last year that Willie ran the place, he was 10 months behind on the rent, and she told him she was chain & locking the gate until he came up with at least some of the back rent. The very next weekend, Willie bolt cut the chains off, and opened the gates in defiance of the Commisioner..,NOT COOL!!! That was the straw, that broke the camels back. This gal recently lost her job as the commisioner over the multi million dollar "green boat" scandal, and its a real shame cause she was a car gal, and really wanted to bring the track back, after the re- building of the Vincent St. Thomas Bridge. The plan was to get The Lions Club involved, and open a new Lion's Drag Strip on Terminal Island. I know Willie made alot of things happen, but as another here mentioned, he burned alot of bridges that left a bad taste in the mouth of the harbor commision for The Brotherhood of Street Racers. Willies last hurrah, was going around to all the High Performance.parts manufactures etc. in So Cal., asking for money to get The Island, going again. I was working at Ross Pistons when he showed up there, and they gave him a check for $1500, and so did alot of other people..,Willie skipped outa town with his pockets loaded. People don't forget that stuff, good luck with your damage control, I hope they give us drag racers another chance, but you gotta add a little class to the effort. Ok, that's my rant, I'm signing the petition.

 

Thanks for signing the petition


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A petition?
I love drag racing! I am so grateful that I was there in the 90s to race at the Brother Hood Raceway. The memories will last forever. I didn't have a Super FAST car, but I enjoyed that time going down that track.
That being said, I see that (I'm sad to say this) Terminal Island is never going to happen. It's government property!!!!
BUT....why can't we utilize the existing drag strips that are functioning now? We have Irwindale and now Fontana. Right now, It sucks that i have to go(If i get a chance during the work weekday) Thursday to race at Irwindale or To the Once a Month Street legal Drags in Fontana.
You guys know how it is. Racing is 24 -7!!!! You think it's going to be enough to contain the urges of the guys wanting to run his(or her) car on occasions? Come on!
What happened to "SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!!" Can we have that again?

 

I wish you all the best.

Out of curiosity has anyone asked about El Toro? Lots of room to make a dragstrip there. I'm sure anywhere you try is gonna have at least one whinebag making it difficult.

 

"I'm sure anywhere you try is gonna have at least one whinebag making it difficult."

Classic example here in Michigan... Google Onondaga Dragway..

 

about el toro , yes it was checked out and nixed by county zoning muckie-mucks.It was decided that developers could remove the heavy layers of tarmac, rremediate the underlying soils and build homes.Money talks and so does BS in this case !!

 

Signatures on a petition only mean somthing if the signer resides within the elected officials boundries. 5000 signatures from all over except from the community involved carrys very little weight. In community elections it only takes 12% of the registered voters votes to get one elected

 

I see that this thread has fallen flat. No disrespect to the Brotherhood club.
On my first post I mentioned," why don't we just use what we have available now?"
The way I see it,its all about the investors. They are the ones that put the money down to keep the track open. If they see no profits, they'll pull out. Fuck it! It is what it is.
We need our LOCAL SHOPS (none of this Summit or Jegs B.S.)TO GET INVOLVED.
Like TEAM C, BLAIRS, Hawaiian Racing,for example to host an event. I know that the Drag Racing community is tight. If there is an event to drag race, We will come.
The reason I bring this back up because I was reading the Pat Ganahl Thread on the end of R&C and he made a statement that made sense to me.

"Here’s my message: don’t cry over the things the greedy corporations have gobbled up and spit out. If they’re gone, as a consumer group that didn’t keep them profitable (enough), it’s largely our fault anyway. But don’t let it happen again. Rather than complaining about what’s gone, support what we have—enthusiastically."

 

Yes, local names hold more weight, but names are still valuable, as they indicate interested parties that may show up and spend their money with local businesses.
Using existing tracks is great, but many street racers that would enjoy a "outlaw" event wont race at the local NHRA track. That's why so many of the local mom and pop tracks hold great nostalgia events like Billetproof, etc.
I sincerely hope this goes forward for the sake of local racers, and can overcome the hurdles of previous bad history.

 

AS A MEMEBER OF THE BROTHERHOOD I REALLY DONT THINK THIS WAS NEEDED TO BE SAID! WILLIE WAS A GOOD FREIND AND HUNG OUT WITH ME IN ILLINOIS A FEW MONTHS BEFORE HIS PASSING! I STILL THINK PANNETON BROS. RACING KICKS ASS.....I JUS' DONT THINK THIS POST WAS NEEDED! My2cents

 

His comment wasn't hateful. He was just stating the facts.

Big Willie was a legendary figure in the world of street racing. I know that he made some mistakes along his journey in life, but I don't think for a minute that he ever did anyone wrong intentionally. The man was a peaceful soul and was able to talk to and relate to anyone he crossed paths with.

Let's get this petition signed by as many people as we can!

 

Please, just sign the petition. It only takes a couple of minutes and would be a big help to the cause.

 

2,400+ signed the petition and over 5,000 like on facebook.
cools!

 

Meeting with LA Harbor Commission member went well last friday. Progress is being made.
Another meeting today with LA city council head.
more soon.

 

Great news, this would be too cool

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the meeting with LA councilman herb wesson went well. proposal moving forward through the council. more soon.

 

Good news!

 

This a RANT, so either read or skip it. Your call.

Why the hell is it, that with all the MULTI-MILLIONAIRE drag racers and parts suppliers, it's so damn hard to buy up some damn land and build a damn asphalt strips? I am so f-ing tired of hearing and reading about how these folks are doing this or that for some damn national charity that already has big investors, but they can't drop some coin on a f-ing drag strip that would benefit the people who support THEM.

There's a shit load of land still available. Land that's far enough away from civilians that noise or dead ground hogs wouldn't be an issue. Where are the big money guys, when a strip is threatened with closure? Where's the big money for a lawyer to call, "BULLSHIT", when a group of people sweating a spotted owl's habitat shuts down a race track. The spotted owl and the f-ing ring tail fox have a gawd damn lawyer, but the tracks don't have anything but a f-ing petition? Where are the tracks lawyers, when Mr. and Mrs. Shit For Brains can't sleep because they decided to buy a f-ing house next to a drag strip that's been open for 15 f-ing years? WTF did they think the bright lights and noise were on the weekends? UFO's?Where's OUR defense team then? What rock are the big money companies and race teams hiding under? Don't they realize that more tracks mean they can add more races and get more of our f-ing money?

How about this: Why not send a petition to ALL these companies, like Royal Purple, Mr. Gasket, STP, Castrol, Pennzoil, Permatex, NGK, A/C Delco, etc and tell those fat wallet ass wipes to get together and give something back to the people who lined their f-ing pockets. I'll sign that in a heart beat. Send some to all the big money race teams. Maybe tell them to suck eggs, if they can't form a committee to either start building new tracks or protect existing ones.

A group of these big money jerks needs to buy 1,000 acre lots, chase out all the wild life and open up a f-ing track. Maybe in the f-ing desert. But then, they'd get a bunch of pussies crying because it's too damn hot. But hey, they could kiss and drive away in their A/C because it's private f-ing property.

 

IF, all that is true, it sucks. but he's DEAD and there are new people at the helm. "Do it for Willie"? Yup. His name still carries a lot of weight with the locals. Mostly good weight. Seems like a committee laced in scandal can hardly throw stones.

 

Latest news.
Donald Galas got a letter from the Commission a few weeks ago declining his request for usage of land due to Coastal Commission agreements. But, not all is completely dead. He is still fighting. I went to a Port meeting last Thursday to get more info. Be thankful that at least 60 supporters showed up at the evening meeting. The local city councils and neighborhood groups banded together to have meetings at 6 pm so working folks like us can attend and speak publicly. Garcetti and Wesson were not in attendance but we had at least six people including myself speaking to the board to try to put this land to some good use. Thanks to all who sign the petition. Get on board and get involved. You will not be alone at some lame city council meeting. He's trying to get the word out. here is a link to Don and the whole meeting.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=902487876445738

from the LA port site (keep in mind there are other issues on the agenda)
http://portofla.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=791