Race track owners, sanctioning body officials and sponsors have a “problem.” That problem is often the racers, the fans and yes, even those of us in the media who fail to faithfully mention, in every story, the full name of a particular race track or event. Given their choice, the management at the track in Norwalk, Ohio would like all of us to call the facility by its now proper name, Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park, and quite honestly, we don’t have any problem with that. They’ve paid for that name change, and “deserve” to have the track referred to by it.

By the same token, if we’re following “procedure” we should also be referring to the event as the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.

That’s in the ideal world. In the real world it’s going to take years, and maybe even decades before anyone consistently refers to the facility or the event by its full and complete proper name. Until then everyone’s going to continue to reference the track as simply “Norwalk.” When someone talks about the race they’re probably going to call it the “Summit Nationals,” or maybe something even more simplified, like the “Summit race.”

This is anything but an isolated problem. It’s somewhat universal. Management would like us to refer to the Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, but for all eternity those of us who live and breathe drag racing will continue to just refer to it as “Indy.” In reality it’s the AC Delco NHRA Gatorationals at Gainesville Raceway, but to us it’s always going to be either “Gsainesville,” or maybe “the Gators.” Race track owners, sanctioning body officials and sponsors have a “problem.” That problem is often the racers, the fans and yes, even those of us in the media who fail to faithfully mention, in every story, the full name of a particular race track or event. Given their choice, the management at the track in Norwalk, Ohio would like all of us to call the facility by its now proper name, Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park, and quite honestly, we don’t have any problem with that. They’ve paid for that name change, and “deserve” to have the track referred to by it.

By the same token, if we’re following “procedure” we should also be referring to the event as the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.

That’s in the ideal world. In the real world it’s going to take years, and maybe even decades before anyone consistently refers to the facility or the event by its full and complete proper name. Until then everyone’s going to continue to reference the track as simply “Norwalk.” When someone talks about the race they’re probably going to call it the “Summit Nationals,” or maybe something even more simplified, like the “Summit race.”

This is anything but an isolated problem. It’s somewhat universal. Management would like us to refer to the Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, but for all eternity those of us who live and breathe drag racing will continue to just refer to it as “Indy.” In reality it’s the AC Delco NHRA Gatorationals at Gainesville Raceway, but to us it’s always going to be either “Gsainesville,” or maybe “the Gators.”

Regardless of what you call it, Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park or as we’re likely to refer to it during the remainder of the weekend, “SREMP,” (that’s a hard one to roll easily off the tongue), has, after one day’s running in NHRA national event trim, already become one of the finest facilities on the 23-race NHRA POWERade Series tour. There are numerous first class facilities featured on that tour, but from talking to a handful of sportsman racers here today it’s already apparent that SREMP has vaulted to near the top of the list of those tracks that are revered as both great race plants and first class, fan-friendly venues.

SREMP is NOT the same Norwalk Raceway Park IHRA fans and competitors have been seeing at the IHRA World Nationals in August of recent years. While the track was already a damn fine facility even then, it’s become nothing short of a supertrack during the ensuing months. As track manager Bill Bader, Jr. put it, the Bader’s family’s investment in track improvements in the last year exceeds $6 million dollars. By anyone’s standards, that’s a ton of money, but it was money well spent.

For those of you familiar with the track, the first major change you’ll notice is that the pros are now on the east side of the facility, all of them parked on a new sea of asphalt that stretches the length of the quarter mile. The sportsman are now exclusively on the west side, where conditions are also much improved.

One thing that’s unique to SREMP (at least as far as we know) are the new digital scoreboards – that have readouts on both sides! That means racers pitted beyond the end of the quarter mile racing surface – and there are many at SREMP because of the property configuration – can now see what’s going on on the track without having to constantly have their collective ears pressed to a PA speaker or car’s FM radio. That’s also going to eliminate a lot of those “What’d he run?” questions. Bill Bader, Sr. apparently gets the credit for coming up with that idea.

It may seem kind of funny to you, but among the most jaded observers of drag racing are the photographers who cover the circuit. While some of them might try to play the “cool” role and indicate they take everything in stride, the reality is that no one gets into this business without first having a love for the sport. Dave Kommel, who regularly supplies quality photography for Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com (along with the inimitable Roger Richards and others), gave us his view of the facility. “I’m guessing that the last time I saw this place was in 1989 or ’90. The last time I was here there was hardly any paving in the pits. I remember it being mostly gravel. The big bleachers weren’t here. It’s almost like a new facility. From what I’ve seen (so far) this facility is better than a lot of the others on the tour. The press room is unparalleled. It looks to me like this is a first class NHRA facility.”

The employees at SREMP are also somewhat unique – most of them actually seem to enjoy being at work. Track clean-up – and by that we don’t mean the racing surface, we mean the grounds, the grandstands, the bathrooms and even the concession areas – are constantly, and we mean constantly being patrolled by uniformed workers who pounce on a hot dog wrapper as if it were a poisonous snake that must be instantly removed from sight.

Even early Thursday the line at a “buck-a-pound” ice cream stand was long, but nobody seemed overanxious. Seventeen-year-olds Katie Nichols and her buddy, Hershel Wireman, were among those manning the booth. “It gets real busy on weekends like this,” she told us with a big grin. When we asked her if the ice cream was any good we got that “Are-you-from-Mars” look that only teenage heartbreakers are capable of delivering with a smile. And Katie got back to digging out more Moose Tracks ice cream (Torco's CompetitionPlus.com is not responsible for SREMP’s ice cream flavor names!).

Dana Bisbee, who handles electronics for NHRA, is also a first-timer at Norwalk (oops, we meant SREMP), and had this to say: This is a very nice track. Everything seems to be well taken care of. They’ve got a great maintenance program going on here. The staff all seem to be very professional. The place seems to me to b e very much on a level of a Las Vegas or someplace like that.”

Putting together a national event is no easy task, but as track manager Bill Bader, Jr. said this afternoon, “We are prepared. I would say we’re 98 percent there. If you were to ask me what wasn’t done, the only thing I can really point to is that we’ve been through a little drought for the last six weeks, so some of the grass and greenery we’d like to have just didn’t make it.

“What started out as a $4 million dollar advancement quickly grew into something where we’ve spent right around $6 million in actual dollars. It was actually six-point-something. The main things people (who have been here before) will notice are the new scoreboards, all the new paving, and maybe some of them will notice our tower expansion. We’ve got elevator access to the top of the tower now, so that should make things easier for the race control people.

“We’ve also got brand new Musco Sports Lighting for the pit areas, and new luxury suites that are more along the lines of what you’d see in a major stick and ball facility.

“Our pre-sale (tickets) are completely out of control. I’ve never seen it higher, and that’s not promoter hype. They’re out of control. I think we’re in pretty elite territory with races that have been established for a long time, but I think realistically, based on what I project our walk-up (ticket sales) to be, that we’ll have a very huge crowd. I think this will be the largest inaugural race in NHRA history. I also believe our hardcore IHRA people are going to come out and support this race. How could you walk around this place and not be impressed with what you see here? Based on the huge pre-sale we’ve had I believe our fans are going to support this race in a big way.”

Bader may have some natural enthusiasm for both the facility and the event (and who can blame him?), but that’s not the case with the racers we spoke with, including Doug Mann of Newark, OH, who said of the facility: “We raced here when this track was IHRA and it’s totally different now. You couldn’t ask for a better place than this.”

For a different perspective we sought out John Di Bartolomeo, the editor of Drag Racing Action Magazine who also happens to be a Super Comp competitor. In his view, “The changes that (Bader) made here are unbelievable. As much as I like Las Vegas, and Vegas is probably the top notch facility because of where it’s at and the atmosphere that surrounds the place, this place is a close second.”

Don Graham is another local Ohio racer who also happens, in his business life, to sponsor the season-opener at SREMP. The 59-year-old began racing at NRP in the 60s, and has seen the facility go from “stones and a strip of pavement to what they’ve got here now. It’s phenomenal. The weekend program here usually has three or four hundred cars.”

We certainly can’t predict the outcome of the first national event at SREMP, but we can state without hesitation that even at the conclusion of its first day c competition everything about this track is light years ahead of at least a handful of other facilities on the NHRA POWERade circuit.