MANA — If everything goes according to schedule, the sight, sounds and smells of drag racing will return to the Kauai Raceway Park in September. Carty Chang, the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources engineer, said the DLNR has
MANA — If everything goes according to schedule, the sight, sounds and smells of drag racing will return to the Kauai Raceway Park in September.
Carty Chang, the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources engineer, said the DLNR has assembled a strong team with the goal of resurfacing as much of the facility as possible by Labor Day.
Chang, in an overview of the $1.3 million project, said when he received the work, he never realized the importance the drag racing facility had for the community.
“It’s a great economic driver for the Westside,” said State Rep. Dee Morikawa. “When I first came here to learn more about the request for funding, I was blown away by the more than thousand people, and more surprisingly, the amount of families which come to the drag races.”
The project — which includes removing and resurfacing the pavement — is set to begin in July. Construction includes repaving the asphalt concrete race track, reconstructing the launch pad and burnout box and restoring pavement markings. The track was last resurfaced in 1972.
Capital improvement funding of $246,000 was authorized by the Hawaii Legislature for design and construction management, plus $847,000 for construction.
William Aila, DLNR chairman, said the project is about families, in delivering remarks from Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who was scheduled to visit the facility.
“It’s a place to gather to share stories of the past, make stories for the present, and to teach children about how they will create stories for the future,” he said.
Aila said the Garden Isle Racing Association has been promoting safe motors ports since 1999 as well as hosting family events at the Mana facility.
Safety in motor sports is one of the highest priority items in the GIRA mission, said Tony Ricci, president of the association.
“This groundbreaking is only the start of a program we have been working on for the last few years so we can make the track available with a sponsored program, which will allow us to give high school and Kauai Community College students the opportunity to race for free,” Ricci said. “We want them to ‘race the track, and not the street.’”
The Garden Isle Racing Association, incorporated in 1999, is a not-for-profit corporation. Its mission is to educate the community about automobile safety, and especially to discourage unsafe and reckless driving on public roads by promoting and operating safe, sanctioned, legal, off-public-street automobile and motor vehicle racing contests and recreational events.
GIRA races include classes for street-legal cars, imports, muscle cars, Jr. Dragsters and professional race cars.
