Indoor Drag Racing

We came so close to having an indoor drag strip in pittsburgh that it wasn’t funny. During my younger more active drinking days I was at my local watering hole and took up a conversation with a stranger when he saw one of the many racing shirts I always wore. He was the engineer involved in a brand new indoor drag strip at the old pittsburgh international airport. This structure was big enough for 1/8 mile drag racing but was also designed around shows big enough to have plane and jet trade shows and conventions. The exhaust system along side the track was designed of course to lower the fumes but also the noise. The first design was turned down because of the poles holding the roof up. The issue was they wanted tv contracts and the cameras would go out of focus as they filmed the race going down the track. They addressed that issue and were ready to make the move and the money man up and died. Boom dead project. His next project was the Peterman event center where Pitt basketball is played. It wouldn’t have been a good tow for me because it’s on the other side of Pittsburgh but I’m sure I would have had to go.