The drag racing history of Pacific Raceway isn’t lost on drag racing veterans of  current and previous generations.

Ed McCulloch has his memories as a driver at the facility located outside of Seattle in Kent, Wash. For current NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon, his memories date back to childhood, riding in the back of the family’s station wagon, the tow vehicle for Larry Dixon Sr.’s Top Fuel dragster.

“Over the years, Seattle has been a great venue for drag racing,” said McCulloch, who never claimed an NHRA win at the facility. “In the old days, we had an awful lot of fun racing up here. [Pacific Raceways] was the key race track in the Northwest … with the key events. A lot of the guys from back east made their way up here to go racing. We used to have a ball.”

Promoters the likes of Bill Doner, Jim Rockstad and the late Steve Evans had a way of incorporating both the thrilling and ludicrous into their shows. There were 64-car Funny Car events, Fox Hunts and even a race with former porn star Linda Lovelace as the race queen.

These kinds of shows brought out the best in race fans, and depending on your moral character – the worst.

The drag racing history of Pacific Raceway isn’t lost on drag racing veterans of  current and previous generations.

Ed McCulloch has his memories as a driver at the facility located outside of Seattle in Kent, Wash. For current NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon, his memories date back to childhood, riding in the back of the family’s station wagon, the tow vehicle for Larry Dixon Sr.’s Top Fuel dragster.

“Over the years, Seattle has been a great venue for drag racing,” said McCulloch, who never claimed an NHRA win at the facility. “In the old days, we had an awful lot of fun racing up here. [Pacific Raceways] was the key race track in the Northwest … with the key events. A lot of the guys from back east made their way up here to go racing. We used to have a ball.”

Promoters the likes of Bill Doner, Jim Rockstad and the late Steve Evans had a way of incorporating both the thrilling and ludicrous into their shows. There were 64-car Funny Car events, Fox Hunts and even a race with former porn star Linda Lovelace as the race queen.

These kinds of shows brought out the best in race fans, and depending on your moral character – the worst.

“The fans were great,” McCulloch recalled. “They were always good to me.”

Pacific Raceways has and always will attract a unique breed of race fan. Some fans are bold in their approach; such as the one who opened up a porta-pot on 14-time Funny Car champion John Force. Others, as Jim Rockstad recalled during the Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com War Stories Showdown, used the portable toilets as a weapon.

A scorned woman who caught her boyfriend cheating waited until he entered the porta-pot to deliver the final blow of their relationship by pushing it over.

“The fans were out of control and we were a little too,” admitted John Stewart, a former nitro racer who now tunes Top Fuel racer Shawn Langdon. “We all had a lot of fun, but we just can’t talk about it.”

Pacific Raceways has run under both NHRA and American Hot Rod Association sanction, hosting major events in both the fall and spring. The NHRA held its Fallnationals event in Seattle from 1975 until 1980. The track returned in 1988 to host a summer date which eventually became one-third of the NHRA’s famed western swing.

Dixon was a mere pup back in the days of the rambunctious events and remembers the events of the 1970s through innocent eyes.

“It seemed like it rained here all of the time,” said Dixon. “We did have a lot of good times coming up here. We actually drove past the hotel we used to stay in coming up here. It was just a little hole in the wall place; it just kind of reminds you where you have been.”

Now all grown up, Dixon head’s into this weekend’s NHRA’s Northwest Nationals as the Top Fuel point leader on the strength of wins in the last three of four events. His childhood memories were great but as an adult, his favorite visit to Pacific Raceways came in 2003 when he won the race. That victory is the only one in the northwest to his credit.

“We lost lane choice and got stuck over in the left lane when it was really bad here,” Dixon recalled. “[Tuners] Dick LaHaie and Donnie Bender worked up some magic and we went right down the lane. We ended up winning the race and that ranks up there.”

Hard to believe that was seven years ago.

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” Dixon said.

Having fun is what a lot of racers and fans had at Pacific Raceways, now in its 51st season of operation. During Friday afternoon’s qualifying NHRA announcer Alan Reinhart walked around on the starting line asking many of the drag racing legends to share their stories with the race fans over the PA.

One by one, they declined or were either vague, as Reinhart assured them the Statute of Limitations had run out on their transgressions.

“There are some stories where the statute of limitations will never run out,” McCulloch said with a smile, before turning away from the microphone.