NHRA Reschedules Winternationals, Cancels Northwest Nationals
The NHRA and Auto Club Raceway have announced July 30 – Aug. 1 as the rescheduled date of the 61st annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals and have canceled the Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington.
The Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals, which traditionally kicks off the NHRA season, was postponed due to state health guidelines in California. NHRA and the track have worked closely with state and local officials to find a new date for the event and are confident that the new date will allow more fans to attend the race, the sanctioning body said.
“We are very excited to have the Winternationals back on our schedule,” said Kasey Coler, NHRA vice president of Track Management and Operations. “The Winternationals is a historic event, and we’re thrilled to be returning to Pomona.”
The NHRA and Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington, have also canceled the 2021 Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals, the organization said. “NHRA needed to make a decision to move forward to allow teams and touring staff time for travel preparations,” said Glen Cromwell, NHRA president.
Though Washington State recently announced a lessening of its COVID-19 restrictions, there is still uncertainty about what rules could impact the event, the NHRA said.
“Although what we heard yesterday was encouraging for our state, the path for large events in 2021 is still not clear,” said John Ramsey, general manager of Pacific Raceways. “An event like this requires a lot of advance planning. We needed assurance from the state and county that we could run an event of this size without any restrictions, but we were unable to get a guarantee. Fans of the Flav-R-Pack NHRA Northwest Nationals deserve confidence in the event dates and experience. We will be 100% ready for the series to come back July 29-31, 2022.”
The Winternationals will take the original slotted date of the Northwest Nationals and now conclude the annual NHRA Western Swing, which includes Denver, Sonoma and now Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
