A first experience brings a collision of emotions. Preparation leans in toward excitement. Anticipation builds with imagination. Will expectations be met? Uncertainty slides into exploration. A travel reward.
Second time is almost better. Trading in some adventure for a little familiarity. New yielding to experienced. The lay of the land and vantage points return. I like it here. An achievement.
Next is the start of the rest, a test of sorts; a reoccurring series of events that no matter how individually good inevitably blur all together. Do the eventual changes over the years help or hurt the experience, trading vibe for something financial?
As an event comes off one list and moves on to another becoming a first, likely good enough to record a second and round the calendars for more… Thoughts wander and wonder about that list of others. Is there enough time to keep pursuing more of the rest and experience enough more firsts? Focus for balance. Explore.
As if characters led by John Belushi in the movie “Animal House” impatient voices become increasingly louder in my head “Road Trip…Road Trip…Road Trip!”
Events go from First, if fortunate enough to command a return – Second and through calendars..slide into a collage of The Rest (First, Second and The Rest, more on this later). While loving reoccurring events there is always a need for something new. Thoughts wander and wonder about that mental list of others.
I need a road trip. A mission. In this case, a solo drive to meet up with old friends at Mission Raceway Park (MRP) in British Columbia, Canada for a couple days of drag racing, Top Fuel Nitro Bikes in particular; but in some words of Larry Chen, “Double-Dip the trip” so I’ll take it all in.
A few hours drive, a border crossing and a couple days of some old familiar racing at a place I somehow haven’t been to before. Plus a couple nights at an Airbnb for added dimension to the adventure.
The plan is always relatively simple – hit it like I might not make it back. And later start thinking about next time.
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The drive from the population of Seattle got more beautifully remote the further north I drove; to be paused for a 1/2 hour at the border crossing. He said it was, “Because you haven’t been to Canada for over 20 years.” Musing to myself – I bet it’s because I’m a “Known associate of Steve Huff.”
The other border patrol agent (after going through the contents of my vehicle while I watched one-ball sports highlights and listened to other people explain their stuff) 20 minutes later, “You have a lot of camera equipment.”
“Yes, I do.”
“You getting paid for coming up here?”
Laughing…”I wish.”
Scowl
Then I said, “If they keep racing I might come back.”
“I’ll note that in the computer.”
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Ease of coming and going is appreciated – the wooden footbridge at the start of the track is encouraging. I always like a footbridge at a track.
On first arrival into Mission Raceway Park it has a similar feel to the Woodburn Dragstrip and instantly stirred memories. Similarly this NHRA sanctioned dragstrip is on an edge of population and next to the Fraser River. There are lots of Cottonwood trees alongside the working river bank (log rafts are stored and moved along with tugboats), but was told that there used to be more; apparently they thinned some out to cut down on shade in the pits and ‘the bugs’ that everyone I’ve talked to about Mission mentioned.
At night the atmosphere reminded me of my home track (SIR at the time) Pacific Raceways when I was much younger. Seeing so many young people attending a drag race event is refreshing.
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A roadtrip always has layers of experiences..some good (decompression driving), some less than wonderful (wildfire smoke, border politics, weather swings) and some really great moments (time in pits and along the strip).
Mission complete. I find myself weighing the probable return for (second and the rest..) and seeking another new opportunity.
I once heard, ‘There are Vacationers and there are Travelers.’ I am a traveler.
A favorite quote from an old photography instructor, “Take the picture that you don’t need to edit” is timeless.
There is more to showing a vehicle than just parking it somewhere in the designated outdoor area; touch-up detailing and setting up for the day – that is if you are interested in having good pictures taken. Assuming that if it is being shown, photos matter to the owner. Good pictures matter.
What is going to be in a picture?
Let’s start with what may or may not be in your control, depending on how early you arrive and line up at the venue. Spots near garbage cans can be helpful for disposing of trash, much like being near restrooms (portable and permanent) are nice when you need to go..but are not appealing backgrounds. Look around and make the best conscious choice.
Also, you may not be able to select what vehicles you park next to but being surrounded by like kind can make a difference.
Now that you’re parked you are in more control. Things like chairs, coolers, blankets, umbrellas and other things are nice for a picnic but not great photo’s. And if you want people to take shots of the interior – empty it out, at least the drink holders (unless maybe sponsored by a drink company). Larger event promoters like GoodGuys have traditionally designated areas where canopy tents are not allowed. And if you want the vehicle photographed for publication: hood down (unless the engine is exceptionally worth seeing), doors and trunk (unless there’s something really worth noticing) closed.
At a car culture photography workshop (when asked about undesirable surroundings) Larry Chen replied, “Shoot downwards, into the ground.”
Other distractions like people who appear like they would rather be reading somewhere else or knitting in the background are not inspiring.
Modern times have created all kinds of evolving photo magic and artificial fake technology, even phones can do interesting things with a few clicks..but they are not the same. Real photography matters.
If you are going to show a vehicle, work with the photographers that you’ll probably never meet and everyone can win.
There is something poetic about a day of motorcycles racing around throwing dirt in a stadium – built for other purposes..on this occasion home for the Super Bowl winning Seahawks. Days after a record breaking celebration. Juxtaposition.
The obnoxious staccato…excruciating decibels…violence from twisting of wrists…flying dirt. Juxtaposition!
My earliest memories of Motocross racing are years in the Kingdome, a monstrous monument built for a world made of concrete and in turn a destructive offering to the brokers of short lived history. A kind of right-of-passage for a kid inhaling dirt bike exhaust (while squinting through their fog) into the present day older man under a semi-open roof luxury; causing reflections on the last couple times with my friend Steve Huff. More juxtaposition.
There’s something destined about Pacific Northwest small town boys (especially from the seventies) and dirt bikes. While Steve had more seat-time on them than I did, we both thoroughly enjoyed watching the pro’s jump and huck them through the air.
If cameras aren’t allowed, does a photo-shooter still go in?
Talk to me Steve.
Juxtaposition is just a thirteen dollar word for ‘rub some dirt on it.’
We used to get in trouble for cruising places like Alki Beach, Puyallup, Renton loop, Auburn and of course the small town I grew up in Enumclaw..now it’s a thing. First Friday of the summer plus months people Cruise Cole – as in Cole Street the main drag through downtown Enumclaw; walking distance from my parents house. Puyallup selects some summer Saturdays. Other towns follow along.
During the months turned years of social distancing and illegal gathering for events turned what was once unwanted behavior by restless youths and hot rodders (people who saw the movies American Graffiti and The Hollywood Knights in theaters) into acceptable behavior, even welcomed by businesses in struggling towns. What a difference a few decades makes.
Witnessing once small old towns embrace past American car culture behavior to survive and in turn saving, even growing cruising makes a full circle of sorts; a reinventing of the steering wheel.
Watching people watching people driving around has always been part of the fun; setting the camera down to walk around and visually focus on the crowds is revealing. Streateries pack with drinkers once relegated to shadows of parking lots, babies in strollers roll along, kids run and teenagers prance as older folks cheer from lawn chairs. Americans love affair with motor vehicles has turned a corner, one of and for all ages.
Muscle cars lumping down the same streets as their exhaust notes reverb off the old brick buildings with different occupants creates a memory collage. So many reflections in old windows.
Old towns have character. Go for a cruise, enjoy the rides, take a walk and look around.
The Pacific Northwest Goodguys car show (reoccurs near where I grew up and continue to live) felt like it was mine. My show. Being in my early twenties when it started made it possible for me to attend almost all of them, with old friends (some gone now), new friends (some gone) and girlfriends (all gone). In the beginning I liked that it had restrictions on the age of a vehicle and an almost overbearing peer pressure for high quality only. As I worked on my car over the years it finally (while never being “done”) was good enough to participate. I recall conversations with others and myself along lines of “Is it really good enough?” I began using the show as an annual deadline for those winter projects that always seem to stretch into spring and summer.
When Garage Asylum grew into a lifestyle brand and became more of a Motorsports media platform it made sense to include marketing at the shows.
With support of affiliates Garage Asylum started having a vendor booth to show off their related products in the win-win spirit, intertwining it all into a crazy-busy-long weekend.
Fast forward to 2018 when the founder died and the next generation opened it up – wide. The age restriction jumped onto another page from older than -1972 to -1986, in 2022 to -1997 and 2023 to -1998…somewhere along the way onto other pages of (foreign, air cooled) vehicles. Not even sure what the cutoff is now. As some say, “It’s all good.”
When another annual favorite show Billetproof died during the worst of the pandemic; those vehicles also ended up in the mix. Inclusion. I liked it better when there were two shows with two different focuses. As an ex kept telling me, “You can’t tell someone how to feel.” And in that lane of emotions…I stopped feeling like it was my show, so I stopped participating with my car and stuck with taking pictures of others and promoting some of what it is now. Focusing on the positives.
Walking around the show catching up with people I don’t see often enough, being amongst hundreds of nice cars and trucks and reflecting on memories – melding like posters on city telephone poles is good for me.
GoodGuys was one of the first events to put Garage Asylum on their approved media list and for that I am annually grateful.
That’s what I asked Steve Huff after he spent a couple hours on the phone one night talking like an excited kid with the knowledge of a mad scientist wired together with racing skills..repeating himself (normal for Steve when he was in overdrive about something he was passionate about) at the beginning of his electric dragster build named “Current Technology” (later rebranded “Faster Than Cancer” when he decided to drive through a terminal diagnosis). He was at the start of his attempt at “The quest for 200” and since Don Garlits was on Good Morning America and said that, “It couldn’t be done with current technology,” Steve had the internal drive, vehicle name and began assembling a new team of experts. And very importantly a financial backer. But Electric? Really? Okay let’s learn.
Being part of the promotion team for whatever adventures Steve Huff Motorsports did was an ongoing master class in Motorsports Marketing. Traveling to test, demonstrate and challenge quarter mile records always came with an assortment of experiences within drag racing communities. Lessons at every stop.
Since widening my mental aperture to include Electric Vehicles and attending dedicated current events like the Holley High Voltage Experience, FIA Formula E racing and Electrify Expo. Memories overlap. More will follow.
I am still catching some of the electric wavelengths or at least continuing to observe and share. Even the most skeptical eyed enthusiasts of motor vehicles have to admit style, performance and variety have exponentially improved…and will continue with the ebb and flow of political waves.
Older vehicle companies like Ford, Porsche and Toyota are competing with newer companies like Lucid, Tesla and Rivian – expanding the possibilities.
Seizing opportunities to demo a few of these vehicles reminds me of the saying, ‘You won’t know if you don’t go.’
Other companies like GhostCat, P-51 and Ryvid are plugging into bicycles, motorcycles, skateboards and scooters – charging a vehicle for everyone.
People will race anything.
Pursuit of performance eventually trickles down to all vehicles. As Steve was trying to show with his tv program idea Speed Freaks later rebranded Speed Geeks – focusing on math, science and physics “and how it applies to the things we race and just speed in general” before he ran out of time – EV would obviously be in the mix.
Is it cool?
Electric Vehicles are continually evolving..you’ll have to open an eye for yourself.
Having never been to a Formula One race (yet) restricts my perspective a bit, some could say a disqualification.
I did take pictures of Max Verstappen at SEMA Ignited 2017 doing some exhibition burnouts and drifting..but that hardly counts.
My earliest childhood memories are the limited televised coverage of the days when James Hunt and Niki Lauda dominated the circuits. I enjoyed the antics of James and watched when I could. In my high school years a British born friend Andy M was a huge fan of Nigel Mansell and with the aid of their enormous satellite tv dish watched more races on English channels.
Fast forward a few decades and I became a more active fan tuning in live around the world for the rivalry of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and kept watching..
Being a fan of most Motorsports, typically the ‘tribal’ community and lifestyle around a track as much as the actual event(s), I try to take it all in. And more for the racing spirit than a particular team, manufacturer or driver; opening my lens to an even wider perspective.
The last decade I enjoyed conversations and watching with another friend Steve Huff (usually recorded races and watched them twice to observe race craft and refine mental notes). He also never attended a race in person, though he did apply to be a corner worker for Las Vegas 2024 race.
Some other friends like John G have attended a few races in Europe with avid race fan parents and an Italian blood red Ferrari fan focus, along with a purest view on the world of Formula One (including a disdain for the F1 abbreviation). More recently Andy went to an early race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas with some corporate-life friends. Another photographer friend Karl N has experienced a race in Las Vegas from the media access lanes through a couple of other lenses.
Leading up the 2025 “Summer Blockbuster” F1 movie some conversations came and went..with most of my Formula One friends gone, living elsewhere, passionately opposed or simply uninterested. I chose to go see the movie by myself – a first. Along with the spirit of Steve Huff.
Steve and I never talked about this upcoming movie while he was still alive, as it was being released near the end of his life..we left that discussion unsaid. In a final conversation with Steve he did find it interesting that I haven’t seen any of the Formula 1: Drive to Survive Netflix series (perhaps I should open my mind more).
Being a lifelong student of Marketing, Motorsports in particular, I wanted to go watch the F1 movie (knowing that I would eventually see it on tv anyway and didn’t want to regret missing the IMAX experience) through that lens and quieted the race fan skeptic in me – for an open minded fair shot.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I believe that Steve would have also, and likely would have been bugging me to go see it again…to refine mental notes.
I believe if there was a Motorsports Marketing degree this movie and the study of it – would be included. Should be included.
“It’s in the hands of the racing gods now.” — Kate
Saw it again with Andyspecial Time edition
Formula 1 : F1 Comes to America
“Hollywood Goes Full Throttle” includes a few pages about the making of the movie with some good (non spoiler) insight.
A quick internet search for the meaning of Hooligan yields:
Hoo•li•gan
A violent young troublemaker, typically one of a gang.
While the wink at a virtual textbook definition brings a grin; this motorsport is relatively young and violence is in the throaty machines. Troublemaker(s) well watch some races and decide for yourself.
Years ago Roland Sands and his company RSD pushed the new Super Hooligan racing onto the scene and is often coordinates with the MotoAmerica super bike series; muscling in with some throaty American machines. In the early years the handful of bikes were mostly modified Indian motorcycles.
In 2020 Steve Huff Motorsports modified a Harley Davidson Pan America touring bike from Destination Harley and elbowed their way into some races. Often with catching a new wave it is challenging and at times frustrating..
As was the case (a few times) for Steve over his racing career the vision(s) survived and live on – currently there are several teams competing with versions of these HD motorcycles.
Now the field runs with a couple dozen teams of assorted manufacturers. And Roland is still riding the driving force.
Top Fuel. Pro Fuel. Nitro Bike. Call them whatever you want. Motorcycles that can stand on their own (same size as a car) rear tire, gulp nitromethane, lean on wheelie bars and answer with parachutes – requiring those brave enough to wear a ballistic vest are mechanical beasts.
I knew that my friend Steve Huff drag raced a couple different classes of these motorcycles – at the extreme end of the spectrum. But since he had moved on from that lane of racing many years ago and the bikes were long gone before we started promoting other adventures, it never really came up much, other than that he had broken some records:
All Harley Drag Association
2001 AHDRA P/D 1/4mile 180.28mph
2001 AHDRA P/D 1/8mile 154.32mph
Canadian Motorcycle Drag Racing Association
2002 CMDRS T/F 1/4mile 202.84mph
I also knew that another friend Dana Meeks who Garage Asylum used to help with promotion when his team was actively racing his Top Fuel Harley until engine failure in Las Vegas and other financial realities put the bike in a museum; also knew Steve.
Chalk it up to how guys talk (or don’t) but until Steve was near the end of his life and we focused on his time racing these bikes – I learned that while he was at the dragstrip in Woodburn Oregon to race his custom street bike “The Wet One” he saw a, “Wow what is that!” race bike and ended up buying one; racing into the next few wild years. After a season of rebuilding it with the help of Russ Tom and those behind the scenes at Downtown Harley Steve moved up and bought a bike from Jim McClure (a rare occurrence) and with Jim as a mentor raced – funded by a rollercoaster of sponsorships from Future Brands (Jim Beam and Pucker), Znetix and a Playboy deal that “came and went” overnight. Following Jim’s death in 2004, disintegrating sponsorships and diminishing changes to the world of AHDRA – Steve, “Kinda gave up.”
After Steve died May 21, 2025 Dana shared that, “Steve Huff was his first exposure to Top Fuel Harley’s at Pacific Raceways (Seattle International Raceway). Wow what is that!” came up again.
After that day of AHDRA races, one thing lead to another and Dana became involved with AHDRA writing for their magazine and ended up acquiring a new bike built by Don Johnson “DJ” and learned to race it on the East Coast earning the AHDRA 2008 Pro Rookie of the Year before bringing it home to the Northwest.
The Meeks team fueled by the newer reoccurring Western Canadian Top Fuel Nitro Bike Race Series at Mission Raceway Park in Vancouver went back into the shop rebuilding the engine, changing the forks and other improvements to bring the beast back to the track.
Fast forward as I reflect on how our paths intertwined again and in some of Steve’s last words, “…I no longer need a pit floor. Hopefully you can use it.”
The old RaceDeck flooring will live to race again.
Garage Asylum 