AIRWAY HEIGHTS — Decades ago the biggest names in drag racing made once yearly visits to Spokane Raceway Park every summer.
Sporting colorful nicknames like “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Tom “The Mongoose” McEwan or John “Brute” Force to name a few, they thrilled fans who packed the track’s on-top-of-the-action grandstands with eardrum splitting noise.
While those days are now ancient history, there’s an effort in the works to bring some of that excitement back when the first annual Northwest Classic visits the Kalispel Tribe’s Qlispe Raceway Sept. 9-12.
Drawing everyday sportsman racers from across the West, as far away as Arizona, the four-day event offers races that each day pay out big time.
Opening day on Wednesday, Sept. 9 features a special All-Star race called the “Border Battle” where teams of 16 racers each from the United States and Canada battle for bracing rights and a $12,000 top prize and $5,000 for runner up.
Spokane’s Justin Jones is one of the locals chosen to race for Team USA and is duly proud to play his part.
“It is obviously quite the privilege because they picked out the best 16 from our area,” Jones said. “So it’s a quite a big honor to be on this team.”
On subsequent days starting Thursday and concluding Saturday, a $10,000 prize goes to the Super Pro victors with $5,000 to whomever wins the Pro Class.
Sportsman drag racers compete in classes using a handicap or bracket-style starting system designed to equalize competition across varying vehicle.
This inaugural race is the work of a team of notable event promoters for sportsman racers, Jim Hughes and Chris Forsyth out of Tucson, Arizona.
It is patterned to some degree out of the exceptionally successful the West Coast Bracket Races (WCBR) organization and the newest addition.
The WCBR was started by Forsyth in 2015 at the Hughes-owned Tucson Dragway.
Hughes is best known as the founder of Hughes Performance nearly a half century ago. He sold the family business in 2015, bought the Tucson racetrack and built a successful sportsman racing program.
He was approached by Qlispe officials to assist that track in building its own sportsman program.
“How do we build better bracket racing up in the Northwest?” Hughes was asked.
Hughes is also a widely decorated sportsman drag racer with two NHRA world titles and 10 national event victories. He was named to the prestigious NHRA’s Top 50 Sportsman Racers List in 2026.
Forsyth is also a dedicated racer who most recently drove to a runner-up finish in the Super Comp final round at the 2026 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Pomona Dragstrip.
He crafted the Southwest Showdown at Tucson offering $15,000 to win at an event that drew over 400 race cars.
Putting together a companion race to the Showdown in Tucson in the PNW is being done both as an experiment and a tribute, Forsyth said on noted drag racing podcaster, Troy Abercomb from Woodburn, Oregon.
Forsyth’s success in the Southwest has a lot to do with support from Northwest that has grown “exponentially every year as they come down.”
“This is a prime opportunity for me to reciprocate the appreciation for the racers that have come and traveled down,” Forsyth said.
With the NW Classic being run the week following the NHRA Division 6 ET Finals, there will be a significant contingent of racers already in town, making chances of a success much greater. The event could attract several hundred race teams.
Visit www.qrpracing.com for event information.