George Nitta has been a fixture in drag racing here in Hawaii since the days when they raced at Sandy Beach, Nimitz Hawaii and the Kahuku airstrip back in the day. Spectators lined the former airport at Kahuku that was an abandoned airfield  from World War 2. There were no guardrails, no bleachers or even a starting light. The side of the runway was the bleachers and spectators lined the runway like guardrails. The starter was a flagman who had to often run out of the way to avoid getting hit by the speeding cars. "It was a miracle that no one got killed," he said with laugh. "Safety was not safe."

"There were no racing slicks back then," George explained, "only skinny street tires." One night at Kahuku his friend was having problems getting traction. "His father was building a concrete wall. So what he did was grab the hollow tiles and loaded them in his trunk," still laughing George went on to explain "As he was racing down the track all of these hollow tiles was falling out from his trunk. He was building the wall while he drove down the track. The flagman had to tell him to go pick up his tiles that was still laying on the track."


In 1964 Jimmy Pflueger and several prominent Honolulu doctors put their money together and started to build a real track out at Campbell Industrial Park. Hawaii Raceway Park was born. Although it still was full of keawe trees and boulders at least it had a dragstrip. Shortly after opening telephone poles had been laid as guardrails and fencing appeared to keep eager spectators a safe distance away. Later, bleachers started to line the track as well. George explained, "If it wasn't for (Jimmy) Pflueger we would never have gotten a (race) track."

In 1973, Hawaii Raceway closed due to new promoters not keeping up with the lease rent. The sport was in a deep tail slide. So George flew up to meet with his friends who had started a new racing organization in California called the Southern California Pro Gas Association. They provided him with their rule books and everything else he would need to get organized back here in Hawaii. He then got the various groups together and held a meeting. Nitta went on to share this information with his fellow racers at the time and one of the racers stood up and said, "Ehhh, all you trying fo do is steal our money." He ignored the obscene comment and continued to move ahead by forming a board of directors for this new organization. His ex-wife came up with a name and a logo. The 50th State Pro Gas Association was born and continued to run organized monthly racing events up until HRP closed in 2006.


To get the ball rolling, George contacted his national sponsors to put together a monetary purse to get this new racing organization started. They ponied up $15,000. In 1973 that is a lot of money. The first event had only 7 cars entered so Nitta brought out his car to make it an 8 car field. In the first round of racing he allowed his competitor to have a huge advantage off of the starting line thus giving the win to the other driver. His daughter was upset but he explained," If I don't do that, they going accuse me of taking their money." The driver that went on to win this first event won $4,000 of the purse which was based on whether the winning car was actually running the sponsoring manufacturer's parts and sticker. This is what is called "Contingency Money". The left over money from the original purse, $11,000 George sent back to the sponsors. The same person who accused him of wanting to steal everyone's money at the first meeting was the one who also tried to convince George to just distribute the money amongst the racers. He said, "They (the sponsors) never going know." George replied, "Yeah, but I know." His generosity with his time and knowledge has helped others to get their racetrack started like the one in Hilo.


His proudest contribution to the racing community is the Junior Dragster program which he started with $11,000 from his own pocket to get the first car here to Hawaii. A Jr D as they are called is basically a miniature dragster with a lawn mower engine. "Hoo, there are so many racers kids at the track so I figured I going start something for the kids to do instead of just bored watching their parents," he explained. The first and foremost thing for the kids to participate are their grades. If they get anything lower than a C they cannot be a part of the program until they bring their grades back up. For a few dollars to cover the costs of gas the kids got a chance to go down the track in a Jr D. "The kids just lined up with their helmets and jackets. Some had $10 bucks in their hand so they could go around again and again." George explained with a huge smile on his face.


Over the years, George's automotive expertise has been utilized by practically every television show here in Hawaii on all the stations from Granny Goose's morning show on KGMB to KHON and everyone other station as well. In 1993 he had a chance to start his own radio show. Auto 101 has been on the air ever since. He is on every Saturday afternoon from 1pm to 2 pm on KHNR AM 690. He has also taught auto maintenance classes at UH and he has also served on the neighborhood board and had sought various political seats. All in an effort to help his fellow racer to have a place to play. He has also had his own auto repair shop since 1967 called Nitta Auto Repair.


A lot of what Nitta does like his radio show is to keep the industry honest. George says, "An educated listener will have less chances of being cheated." Over 16 years later he still calls himself "CRAZY". The costs to stay on the air mainly comes out his own pocket. There are sponsors but like many in racing understands it isn't enough to pay the bills.

With Oahu racers without a legal place to race for over three years now George says the thought of this frightens him. What he sees is a storm brewing and due to the amount of technology today street racers are getting very well organized. With the advent of the Internet they use the forums to announce a cruise and gather at parking lots like Costco late at night. With scanners and cell phones in hand they meet and race and are gone before the cops even arrive at the location. The cops got smart to the forum posts and the street racers adapted. Now they IM (Instant Message) each other on the Internet sites and the cops get out smarted once again.


So I had to ask George what he hopes for the future. He shrugs his shoulders and gathers his thoughts and replied, "Unfortunately the politicians will not do anything about it (Providing a race track)." As evident with the many bills that have come out since 2006 at the state legislature and city council none of which passed. And on a final note Nitta said, "Politicians are golfers. That is why get plenty golf courses." Let us just hope that with 2010 being a major election year for Hawaii that "ALL" Racers whether you are a drag racer, drifter, circle tracker, stunter, road racer, what ever that you will all heed this message that it is time to unite. Register to vote and let's vote in the politicians that will help us get another race track and vote the ones who could care less out of office.

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WANTED: 454 Chevy Big Block


We have had this project on PunishUM to "Pimp" out our transport van to get around our TV gear but have not been able to locate a reasonably priced replacement motor. If anyone has or knows someone who has a NON Peanut Port ( These came out on the 454 Truck Motors ) please contact me at info@punishum.com. I am not looking for a FREEBIE.

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SORRY


I promised a story with Chris Russell that he was going to be at the race in New Jersey. Unfortunately the sponsor deal fell through. If any of you have raced and tried to locate sponsors then you understand, This is a "TOUGH" gig. Even more so in these hard economic times.

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And Finally, on this month's webisode we will be looking back at many of our most memorable stories over the nearly 10 years PunishUM has been on the air. WOW, I remember that first day at Olelo in 2000. Anyway we have the story on the first time we met Todd and Scott Okuhara who are among the BEST crew chiefs in the NHRA. Second gen racer Jack Cambra JR takes us for a wild ride at over 170 miles per hour on two wheels. We visit with one of the top air brush artists in the world and he is from right here on Oahu and we take you to a Bike Blessing? And the very FIRST drift event outside of Japan happened right here in Hawaii and it triggered off the sports world wide appeal. We will also have some Drift t-shirts and PunishUM stickers to giveaway. So check it out on PunishUM.com


So until next month please keep it off the street and on a track and "Speed Safely" Mahalo

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