Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the first national event staged at the track formerly known as Norwalk Raceway Park. A lot has changed about the palatial house of speed located to the southwest of Cleveland, Ohio, even its name.

Now branded as Summit Raceway Park, the facility operates under  the NHRA sanction and represents one of the more successful events on the 23-race Full Throttle tour.

Back in the 1981, the Bader family, fronted by Bill Bader Sr., used a rain plagued IHRA event as a springboard for the future; a stepping stone to it's current prominence as a premier facility in the drag racing world.

However, there are those who remember the time the drag strip, carved out of a cornfield, was afforded its first chance to host a national event. The 1981 IHRA World Nationals was one of those events which left its participants with memories.

Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the first national event staged at the track formerly known as Norwalk Raceway Park. A lot has changed about the palatial house of speed located to the southwest of Cleveland, Ohio, even its name.

Now branded as Summit Raceway Park, the facility operates under  the NHRA sanction and represents one of the more successful events on the 23-race Full Throttle tour.

Back in the 1981, the Bader family, fronted by Bill Bader Sr., used a rain plagued IHRA event as a springboard for the future; a stepping stone to it's current prominence as a premier facility in the drag racing world.

However, there are those who remember the time the drag strip, carved out of a cornfield, was afforded its first chance to host a national event. The 1981 IHRA World Nationals was one of those events which left its participants with memories.

Mark Oswald, co-crew chief for the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster, remembers the inaugural event very well because he won it. Then a Top Fuel driver, he wheeled the Thomas, Oswald and Kattleman dragster to a win over the legendary “Big Daddy” Don Garlits.

“Obviously the place wasn’t as big as it is now,” recalled Oswald, who won the event a record six of the first seven times in both dragster and Funny Car. “But as a Bader trademark, the place was always clean and taken care of. It just wasn’t big at all.”

As a bracket track the pits were fine but for nitro cars and those requiring a tow to the staging lanes, the early days of the facility presented a few challenges.

“You had to be careful towing your car through the pits because there were rocks and boulders to dodge,” Oswald said with a smile. “It was quite a struggle to get around at times.”

Kenny Bernstein raced at the first event like Oswald, and reached the final round. His day ended as a runner-up in Funny Car to Billy Meyer.

“Yeah, I don’t remember much pavement in the pits,” Bernstein acknowledged. “The place was really small.”

Whatever inadequacies the track may have shown during its debut on the big stage were quickly erased as each driver met with Bill Bader recalled Bernstein. It was according to Bernstein, like “meeting the man larger than life”.

“He was a big, tall guy and carried a big smile,” Bernstein remembered. “I shook his hand and knew immediately this guy was different. I knew he was a go-getter back then. The track was small, but it had a lot of potential. All of the tracks were that way back then.

We all saw the hard work and enthusiasm Bill Bader put into it and there was no doubt that he’d make it. Then his son followed in his footsteps.”

Even thought the early pits were crude, the racing surface was as good as any of the legendary drag strips hosting NHRA events at the time.

“I remember making the first run and thinking my car was really slow,” Oswald said. “The track was so smooth and presented one of our career best runs.

Jim Head was in his second season as a Top Fuel driver and with his limited experience learned early how good the surface was.

“Jeb Allen made one of the quickest runs at the time here,” explained Head, who qualified for the field. “I’m not surprised by what this track has become today. If you knew Bill Bader and his determination and his work ethic, you had to know he was going to pull it off.”

If only those racers had seen the track in the days before they arrived. Bill Bader easily admits they might have been concerned. IHRA’s Vice President Ted Jones was very concerned.

“He saw it was under construction,” Bader recalled. “We weren’t scheduled to open the gates until Friday morning, but we had lots and lots of work to do. There was no guardrail in place for the first six hundred feet. There was no chain link fence and the grandstands were just being finished.

“Ted said to me, ‘Bill how’s it going? The race is this week, you know.’ I told him the race is Friday and this is Monday, so get the hell out of my way so I can get it finished. I think Ted was very nervous at that point,” Bader said with a smile.

It was easy to understand why Jones was panicking, considering the lack of necessities as well as a mud-covered racing surface. The track had served as a staging area for the new bleachers, which were purchased from a high school stadium. The Norwalk crew washed the track from start to finish on Thursday.

That first event was an abysmal failure for Bader and the IHRA. According to Bader, the event cost $110,000 to produce and they lost $55,000.

“I said to myself, ‘I just borrowed a quarter of a million dollars to do all of this stuff and I lost over fifty grand,’” Bader said. “I didn’t know what the heck I was thinking.”

“Raymond Beadle walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to flip for $50,000,” Bader said. “He asked me how much I stood to lose. He wanted to flip me for it. God bless him. He was being funny and I wasn’t much in a funny mood.”

Today Bader can laugh about it all, and given the prestige which graces his facility, he is certainly having the last laugh over those who thought it would never happen or at the very least fail miserable.

Just the opposite, Summit Raceway Park is a must stop in the modern NHRA tour for both teams and fans.

It is a fine house, despite the inauspicious start.