Drag racing has been a part of Bremerton's history for many years - even before Bremerton Raceway
took over a little-used runway at what now is called Kitsap Regional Airport.
Surreptitious racing on the streets - on Pacific from First to 10th Streets was said to be a
favorite location - took place occasionally until the early 1950s when the airport site became a
quarter-mile race track. With guidance from the Crankers Car Club, the racers were finally able to
compete in a safe environment.
The Handlers Car Club was formed in 1956 by John Flesher, Leon Fox and Dean Benson and, three years
later, the club leased the track for the 1960 season from the County Airport Board . . . and they
continue to lease the track now from BMP.
The Handlers are celebrating their 50th consecutive year of promoting drag racing events at one of
oldest facilities in the United States. It is also one of the last "portable" tracks still
existing.
Current track operators Gordon and Barbara Howell - he's the Handlers' president and she's the
secretary/treasurer - and track helpers must remove all of the timing equipment after each event,
but advancing technology in the ensuing years made life much easier than it was in 1960-61.
"We used to race on Saturday nights and we had two generators and a quarter-mile of 100 watt light
bulbs," Flesher recently recalled. "Sam Fitz and I were the ones winding up all of the lights when
racing was over because we couldn't leave anything behind.
"The lighting, light poles, fencing and barriers had to be removed and stored after each event.
Nothing over a foot high was allowed near the air strip because it was still in use as an emergency
landing area for the airport."
Fitz, a well-known Bremerton businessman and the driving force in the Handlers' taking over the
track, served as the track promoter. That allowed him to book many of drag racing's top names -
Jerry "The King" Ruth, Ed "The Ace" McCulloch, Larry Hendrickson, Don Garlits, TV Tommy Ivo, Jim
Green, Red Goebel and Frank Pedregon Sr., Fuel Roadsters and Art Arfons' Jet Dragsters.
Fitz later teamed with East Bremerton grad Herman Petersen in what became one this area's most
impressive Top Fuel teams in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Bremerton Raceway has always been a National Hot Rod Association-sanctioned track. It hosted
numerous Division 6 events, some including Top Fuel and Funny Car, through 1975.
Gary Beck is one of the drivers from another era who raced here in Sportsman categories before
gaining respect as one of the best Top Fuel drivers. He won Top Fuel world championships in 1974
and 1983 and retired with 19 race victories - including four at the prestigious U.S. Nationals, the
first in his initial appearance in Indianapolis. He voted 24th on NHRA's Top 50 drivers list in
2001.
"Gaines Markley and I joined a Seattle-based car club in 1958. We had a DeSoto-powered BB-Altered
and took turns driving," Beck said. "We raced at Bremerton, Arlington, Bay View and Shelton, as
best I can recall. That would've been, say, from 1963 to 1965. We moved to a BB-Gas Dragster and
started winning races in 1968 and '69. We ran the division races and then you earned your way to
go to the World Finals as the Division champion, and that's what we did. In '69, I was driving the
car because Gaines moved into a fuel car."
Beck, of Laguna Niguel, Calif., retired from racing in 1986. He was inducted into the
International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999.
Handlers 50th Anniversary festivities to feature Nostalgia Drags
It's only apropos the 50th anniversary celebration will be highlighted by the 15th annual Nostalgia
Drags and Car Show, the sixth annual Northwest Hot Rod Reunion and Cackle Fest on Saturday, Aug.
22. The Nostalgia Drags continue on Sunday.
Among the drivers/car owners expected for Saturday's events are Beck, Ruth, Petersen, Hendrickson,
Flesher, Rob Bruins, John Blanchard, Jim Green, Jim Van Cleve, Doug Betteral, Jim Warter and Wayne
King
