IT’S been a rough couple of months for Portland’s South Coast Raceway, with the South Coast Drag Racing Association having been forced to cancel some of their marquee events due to the inclement weather the region experienced.

However, this challenging period has certainly not dampened the excitement and fervour amongst the association’s passionate supporters, with spokesman Ben Phillips saying there’s been plenty of activity around the club.

“We’re obviously pretty disappointed to have missed out on the 5k burnouts, and most importantly the South Coast Nationals… but there’s still plenty of racing left and we’re excited for what’s to come,” Phillips said.

“Unfortunately, because of the surface where the track is built, it takes a very long time for the area surrounding the track to dry out, so even when there hasn’t been rain for a while sometimes racing still isn’t possible without causing significant damage to the surface.

“There’s still plenty going on around the club… we’ve had the excavator in doing work on the new facilities we were able to secure funding for, and we’re making a few other changes around the place as well.

“Clearly we’re not the only ones who have experienced this struggle in recent times… other drag racing venues have had similar issues, not to mention the speedway over here.”

Phillips added that the raceway still has plenty of racing to look forward to on their calendar, starting with the South Coast 660 on January 7-8.

“We’ve still got a full calendar ahead, we’re communicating with other clubs to make sure we avoid clashes as much as possible,” he said.

“There’s always the possibility that we’ll be affected by other meets, but we try to prevent that where possible.”

2023 South Coast Raceway calendar:

South Coast 660 – January 7-8

Wild Bunch Wars – January 21

Street Machine Drag Challenge – February 1

King of the Street – March 11

Street Car Challenge – March 25

South Coast Powernats – April 15