Sound Wall Complete, Auto Club Dragway Set To Resume Drag Racing

The moment that southern California racers and gear heads have long been awaiting has all but arrived, as the Auto Club Dragway in Fontana is just days away from hosing down the water box and firing off the first pair of cars in nearly two years following the completion of construction on a full-length sound wall that was part of the requirements for resuming normal racing operations.

On Saturday, the facility hosted an open house, giving area racers the chance to preview the new sound wall and celebrate the return of NHRA sanctioned drag racing to SoCal. The strip will then open its gates for official competition this Saturday with NHRA Street Legal Drags. With the cobwebs dusted off, the Dragway will then waste little time getting back into the full swing of things, with the PSCA’s So-Cal Nationals on the docket for February 28 to March 2, and the NMCA WEST’s Street Car Nationals scheduled for March 28 to 30th. Along with the Street Legal Drags and open test and tune, NHRA Summit Racing Series bracket action, Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School, and many other major events dot the season schedule.

The Dragway’s new sound wall, which runs the full length of the quarter-mile strip, separating it from the bordering train yard and the nearby residential neighborhoods, was a key part of the negotiations between track officials and local city leaders to allow the strip to be re-opened. A group of a group of local citizens known as CcoMPRESS (Concerned Community Members and Parents of Redwood Elementary School Students) laid out many of the conditions that the Auto Club Dragway had to meet.

The new sound wall, originally estimated to cost $1 million to construct, was completed in less than three months, and gives the facility, located adjacent to the two-mile NASCAR oval, an entirely new look. But good or bad, there’s drag racing in SoCal again, and that’s all that really matters.

Photo credit: Auto Club Dragway on Facebook