Doug Stokes's Full Interview from our previous Irwindale Speedway Tribute EpisodeDoug Stokes is Irwindale Speedway's 2nd employee and retired after 20 years as the VP of Communications. He was instrumental in planning and building the track, and was often seen at the major events and early practice events. Fun fact: Doug can be seen in Option Video when Keiichi thought he was the track owner.00:14 Doug intro02:19 Doug’s start with the company that built the speedway and tenure with various owners05:56 The decision to build a racetrack at Irwindale07:49 What was at the property before the speedway was built10:27 Planning the construction of the track itself16:23 The decision to construct the drag strip19:59 Non-racing events held at the speedway23:03 More non- racing events25:49 The first meeting to host drift events at the speedway26:59 Falken Drift Showoff, spectator gets injured but would rather stay and watch the drifting29:49 Moving drift events from the parking lot to the actual track31:04 Memories from the first D1 event32:57 Learning the demographic of drift fans by looking at the cars in the parking lot33:46 How crowded the D1 events were35:59 What made Irwindale special39:26 Irwindale Speedway’s mailbox story42:36 Dealing with a fatality at the track on opening night45:57 Doug will miss the people most from Irwindale Speedway, co-workers and racers.#driftinghistory #drifting #driftingpodcast #podcast #irwindale #irwindalespeedway #tribute #d1gp #d1grandprix #formulad #formuladrift #drift #dougstokes