Pacific Raceways is a mixed-use road racing facility near Kent, Washington. The race track was constructed in 1959 and opened in 1960. The track was originally named Pacific Raceways, then became known as Seattle International Raceways in 1976. After the landowner regained control of the track in 2002, the name was reverted to Pacific Raceways.
Pacific Raceways features a 2.25 miles (3.62 km) road course which is used by the SCCA, Society of Vintage Racing Enthusiasts (SOVREN), and ICSCC for automobile road racing. The Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association (WMRRA) uses the course for motorcycle road racing. The course has more than 125 feet (38 m) of elevation change and a beautiful naturally wooded back section.
The track hosts a performance driving school which offers several curricula, including sanctioned race licensing courses, performance driving, lapping clinics, and specialty driving instruction. The facility also features a dragstrip which is used by local organizations and the NHRA for both regional and national-level races, plus a dirt motocross track.
The track hosted a two heat race weekend of the USAC Championship Car series in 1969. The first heat was won by Mario Andretti and the second was won by Al Unser.
Famous quotes containing the word pacific:
“We, the lineal representatives of the successful enactors of one scene of slaughter after another, must, whatever more pacific virtues we may also possess, still carry about with us, ready at any moment to burst into flame, the smoldering and sinister traits of character by means of which they lived through so many massacres, harming others, but themselves unharmed.”
—William James (1842–1910)