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Curtis Jacobson
Portland Oregon
(4576 posts)

Registered:
10/12/2007 02:16AM

Main British Car:
71 MGBGT, Buick 215

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Camping at Pacific Raceways, Kent Washington
Posted by: Moderator
Date: July 25, 2011 03:16PM

In advance of my recent trip to Pacific Raceways, I tried to find information online about camping facilities. I found almost nothing. It occurred to me that a series of notes in this forum might help other people searching for this sort of info. I'm thinking a different thread for each racetrack... I know some of you BritishV8ers (Graham!) have camped at a number of racetracks. What advice can you give?

Pacific Raceways does nothing to encourage tent camping, but at least they don't charge anything for the privilege.

Pacific Raceways is different from many other tracks in that the area inside the actual track is quite small. There's no car access, and camping in the infield is completely out of the question. In fact, there's no possibility of camping anywhere in view of on-track action.

If you're racing, you can park a camper over in the paddock, but there's certainly no soft ground to put a tent in the paddock. Some of the corner workers pitch tents in a little colony close to the paddock...

Spectators are only allowed to camp across the road from the main parking area in a grassy field. At SOVREN's big Pacific Northwest Historics, my friends and I were the only tent campers in the designated camping area. Glorious weather. Exceptional racing. Exactly two tents in the whole bloody place. Only a handful of RVs. Go figure.

About that there field... I've never camped anywhere where it was more difficult to get tent pegs into the ground. Very rocky. However, once the tents were pitched, the grass was soft. Beware of the ants - they bite - so you won't want to go barefoot. (Incidentally, the anthill by the gate into the field stands about two foot above grade.)

We didn't build a fire, and I don't actually know if fires are allowed. The camping area is entirely grass covered, and there are certainly no fire pits already there.

Being relatively far from paddock, track, or other activity... we found the camping area very quiet.

Showers are located in the main public bathroom building. Not too bad a hike. We found exactly one male-designated shower room and exactly one female-designated shower room. They take quarters - one should be enough, but figure on two quarters if you're washing long hair. There was plenty of nice warm water! Bonus: the shower rooms are heated.

Incidentally, the portable toilets at Pacific Raceways are kept particularly clean. They have hand sanitizer dispensers inside. At some locations in the paddock, they even put portable hand washing stations next to the port-o-potties.

Having only been there once, I'm reluctant to review the food. It didn't make a great first impression. (I can particularly recommend hot breakfasts at Mosport, near Toronto - but that's a different thread, right?)


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