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So give in to the lady and book a flight to Hawaii...Kauai to be exact! The garden island, first of paradise to be populated, festooned with gorgeous birds and flowers, great beaches without the feel of LosAngeles, knockout drag racing...???
Yep, Hawaii is a wonderful place for hot rodders, dedicated drag racers and street rodders and custom nuts, this is a great place to lay on the beach. Or under a car. Try it, and you are going to be hooked.
I first became acquainted with the island race scene when I was at Hot Rod Magazine, and we got plenty of photos from Honolulu concerning drag racing on airstrips. Wally Parks made several trips to the islands because of NHRA interest in the quarter-mile everywhere in the world, so we got first-hand reports on how the rod sport was progressing out in the mid-pacific. Quite well, thank you. Perfect weather (which drove so-Cal hot rodding during the Thirties and Forties), and plenty of early open Fords that had not yet succumbed to terminal rust. Add plenty of west coast rodders in the military cycling through, and you had an excellent breeding place for drag racing.
Today, there are drag strips on Kauai, the big island of Hawaii, Maui, and hopefully the most populated island of Oahu will regain a top fuel quarter again very soon. Street rods are everywhere, so are street rodders. Dick Scritchfield (orginator of the LA Roadster Club) lives in Kailua-Kona on the big island, still with his iconic '32 touring rod). No rust because he keeps it clean and garaged.
Interestingly, the drag cars run the gamut of classes, but top fuelers are limited to certain strips, and sometimes only to exhibition runs. That will change as strips such as Kauai improve the surfaces. Even so, the racing is intense. Often there may be only two vehicles in a particular class, but they run nose to nose to the delight of the most laid back crowd you will ever see.
The night time races are best attended, of course, and because of the hibachi bar-b-cues plus the extended family atmosphere, it is all a kind of weekend pot-luck with cars.
Kauai is no exception. I have adopted this island as my place of dreams because the weather report is recorded once a year and played back by the TV and radio every day: temperature from the high 60s to mid-80s, tradewinds to 15, showers possible. On the western sides of any island, the showers less likely. Kauai raceway is on the west, making in the westernmost drag strip in the United States.
It is located in the least populated area, separated from the ocean waves by a low line of sand dunes, and if you don't get stopped at the strip end, you have a further dozen or so miles of open beach to wind-down. The strip itself is right out of the 1950s, way low key, with ample pits on the water side. Opposite the north/south quarter is a raised spectator "platform" made with county participation: There was a plethora of used tires, so the strip guys got the county to pile them alongside the strip, and doze sand over the rubber. A kind of instant grandstands.
Of course, you can take a short stroll through the dunes to that long and uninhabited beach, but I wouldn't advise you swim there. Being a haole newbie, maybe you sink out of sight, no more plenny racing for you!
Races are held monthly on Kauai, you check their schedule on Garding Island Racing Association. Same internet info for the other islands.
During the week, you wander around in a daze just doing incredible beaches, some mountain top hiking, snorkeling, diving, fishing, sailing, getting sunburned, superb food, and checking the occasional street rod. I'll meet you for fish and chips at Nawiliwili Harbor.....
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