Photo: lapl.org
(first posted 4/29/2017) Los Angeles and its environs are a veritable graveyard of vanished racetracks. [One, which we’ll meet later, was very near and dear to my heart. –ed.] Author Harold L. Osmer counts more than 100 tracks from 1900-present, almost all gone now. Some highlights follow. In roughly chronological order, we begin with the Agricultural Park (later, Exposition Park) track adjacent to USC, near today’s Figueroa and Exposition Boulevards. Ag Park was first used for horse, dog, and even camel races, and from at least 1903, some of LA’s first cycling and automobile contests.
Photo: George Prince
Shown in 1913 is the start of Medium and Heavyweight car competition at the first Corona citywide auto road race. It was literally citywide, as the course was laid out on the main circular street that separated the town’s core from the surrounding citrus groves of the Orange (now Inland) Empire.
Photo: SpeedAge Magazine
The seminal Corona street races ran only in 1913, 1914, and 1916, with residents quickly tiring of the noise, traffic(!), and trash, and finally appalled at the death of “Wild Bob” Burman in the 1916 competition. Other, more permanent tracks soon took root in what were then the outskirts of a mid-sized city, often in semi-rural settings.
Photo: EnFilme.com
Charlie Chaplin first appeared on film as the “Little Tramp” in 1914 at the soapbox races (or Kid’s Races) in Venice. Note the seated racer behind the camera. Since Venice is essentially flat, contestants started from a tall wooden ramp.
Photo: George Prince
Ascot Speedway may be right at the top of most folks’ LA legends list, but that well-remembered track came much later than the one featured above, shown at the March 19, 1916 start of the 100-mile, $5000 Washington Sweepstakes. The racetrack in the photo is the Legion Ascot Speedway in El Sereno. Operated by the Glendale American Legion Post in its later years, the track sat along Soto Street, between Valley Boulevard and Multnomah Street. Again, orchards and fields bordered the grounds. Racing here ran from 1916 to 1936.
Photo: progcovers.com
Due to concerns about mounting fatalities, the American Legion dropped its sponsorship in 1935. On January 25, 1936, driver Al Gordon and riding mechanic Spider Matlock were both killed in a crash of their two-man Indy car. The track closed and later burned,”torched by a former employee who said he didn’t want to see any more of his friends killed”, [LA Times; Oct. 10, 1994]. The only remaining trace of the fearsome Legion Ascot Speedway is the curve in today’s Hatfield Place. It was the dangerous south curve of the old raceway; where so many lives were lost. Schools, homes, and parks (including Ascot Hills Park) now cover the site.
Photo: lapl.org
Opened in 1920, the Beverly Hills Speedway was an all-wood track. Note the packed stands and sheer number of spectators’ cars in the lot and infield, despite the sparse surrounding settlement. Races continued in the future 90210 Zip Code until 1924.
Photo: lapl.org
In 1924, the Culver City board track went up, but was gone by 1927, another victim of the 1920’s LA real estate boom. In 1932, a dirt track at Washington and West Adams Boulevards, also called Culver City Speedway, opened. It did not outlive the Depression.
Photo: TheOldMotor.com
Moving into the days of living memory, we see here another legend in sprints and midgets, Gilmore Stadium (1934-1952), which stood immediately adjacent to Gilmore Field, home of the minor-league Hollywood Stars baseball team. The tracks stood where the Original Farmers Market, The Grove mall, and CBS Television City stand today.
At Gilmore Stadium, Fred Offenhauser honed the finer points of his seemingly everlasting Offy motor.
Photo: USC Library
South of downtown LA, a succession of tracks, including Southern Ascot (in South Gate, 1937-42), and Gardena Speedway (1947-1957, above), eventually led to the hallowed Ascot Park, also in Gardena, located within a stone’s throw of another predecessor, Carrell Speedway (1940-1954), whose site is now occupied by the Gardena-Carson YMCA. The site stood vacant for many years as part of route preparations for the extension of the Artesia (91) Freeway into the South Bay, which never occurred.
Photo: J.C. Agajanian
Ascot Park was my hometown racetrack, as I grew up two boulevards over, in North Torrance. (My house would be just below the bottom of the shot showing the two tracks.-ed.) At night, I would leave my second-floor bedroom window open to hear the roar of the cars. During high school, my buddies and I sat in the stands outside turn one, where the single-speed, methanol-fueled, aluminum Donovan-powered sprint cars were most likely to fling dirt directly into our drinks. Noted promoter J.C. Agajanian, whose offices on Hobart Boulevard were about two blocks from our house, operated Carrell Speedway before opening Ascot, his flagship track, in 1957.
Image: Daily Breeze
Ascot finally closed in 1990, and remains, to my knowledge, the only closed metropolitan-area track not to be completely built over. It’s an insurance auction lot now. Maybe some wealthy racer could bring it back, but no doubt the NIMBYs wouldn’t have it, as the former Vermont Drive-In Theater that sat kitty-cornered is now all houses. (Closer, though, are the permanent residents of the Roosevelt Memorial Park, who probably wouldn’t complain too much. –ed.) Evel Knievel’s first televised jump took place here, as did parts of Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), and CHiPs (1979). Records show that 62 Indy 500 drivers, among them winners Troy Ruttman, Rodger Ward, and Johnnie Parsons raced at Ascot. [LA Times, Nov. 11, 1990]
It wasn’t all sprints, midgets, and beater stocks in SoCal, however. Two world-class venues would open; dedicated facilities with real pits, visitor amenities, TV links, and serious seating capacity.
Photo: drivingline.com
Beginning in 1957, Riverside International Raceway began hosting events and, of course, being semi-close to Hollywood, film shoots. At the outset, there were three track configurations: the long course (about 3.25 miles), the short course (about 2.5 miles), and the NASCAR course (a bit over 2.5 miles). As years passed, up to seven different layouts were used for different events. NASCAR contests at Riverside were notorious for their rough, doorhandle-to-doorhandle action. Movies filmed at RIR include On the Beach (1959), RoadRacers (1959), Grand Prix (1966), and The Love Bug (1968). Car-heavy TV shows like The Rockford Files, CHiPs, Simon and Simon, and Knight Rider also shot episodes there. The track closed in 1989, to be replaced by houses and the Moreno Valley Mall. Some local place names still reflect those of famous drivers, i.e.: Penske and Andretti Streets.
Photo: Pinterest.com
Looming large in memory, but lasting a mere ten years (1970-1980) was the Ontario Motor Speedway, an ambitious four-sport (USAC, NASCAR, NHRA, and FIA) track that also hosted the 70’s-fabulous California Jam rock concerts. It’s builders, including Citi Securities and Filmways corporations, touted it as “The Indianapolis of the West”.
Photo: Jim Glines
Cal Jam, in 1974, claims the record for largest-ever outdoor concert, with 300,000-400,000 paying fans in attendance [donbranker.com]. Cal Jam 2, in 1978, counted only slightly fewer. Note the timing tower (above).
Image: ABC Entertainment
Movies, TV, concerts, four kinds of racing…none of it could save OMS. The speedway met the fate of each of the preceding tracks, being supplanted by yet more houses and businesses. Modern roadways in the area also bear names like Concours Street, Ferrari Lane, and Porsche Way. Which leaves us with the dragstrips. Lions, for one.
Photo: pinterest.com
Opening in 1955 with Mickey Thompson as track manager and sole employee, Lions (sponsored by a coalition of local Lions Clubs) stands above all others in the memories of local hot-rodders. I clearly recall a trip there with my dad and uncle during the strip’s final days. They wanted my cousin, brothers, and I to be able to say we’d been there. The track’s motto was “Drive the Highways — Race at Lions.”
Photo: munsterkoach.com
Remember Grandpa Munster’s Barris-crafted Drag-u-la? Most of the Munsters episode “Hot Rod Herman,” (aired May 27, 1965) was filmed at Lions, rebranded as Mockingbird Heights Drag Strip. I believe the red, white, and blue bunting shown above is covering the actual sign. Spare no expense, Mr. Director!
Photo: flickr.com/TWE42
Couldn’t resist one more shot showing A/FX action at this classic strip!
Image: hotrodhotline.com
Orange County International Raceway certainly attracted every top name in drag racing in its day (1967-1983). Over time, OCIR gained a partially-deserved reputation for wild Friday night meets, and frequently ruffled the feathers of retirees at nearby Leisure World (now Laguna Woods). Located on prime Irvine Company land, adjacent to the San Diego Freeway, it is perhaps a wonder that the strip lasted as long as it did. In its last season, OCIR hosted the best-attended World Finals ever, and promoted back-to-back 32-Funny Car shows on consecutive Saturday evenings [Drag Racing magazine, Nov. 1984]. At OCIR’s opening, spectator tickets cost $2, pit passes $1. Commercial development now covers the site.
Photo: hotrodcraft.com
Of course, fans did often leave OCIR feeling a little, well, Altered! Other tracks like San Fernando, Santa Ana, Palmdale, Brotherhood/Terminal Island, and a raft of many short-lived strips basically stayed one step ahead of the houses, office parks, and container terminals until they met their demise.
Photo: racingjunk.com
Still, some remain and thrive…like Pomona, which has hosted the NHRA’s Winternationals and World Finals each year for decades. (Also remaining, and seemingly always in its last season, is Irwindale.)
Image: Southern California Timing Association
Others further afield, but less than a few hours away, are Famoso, known for its nostalgia drag meets; El Mirage dry lake, hosting SCTA land-speed cars since 1948, and scene of countless out-on-the-playa location shoots (as well as a sailplane base); Costa Mesa Speedway, featuring flat-track bikes; and Barona, a compact 1/8 mile dragstrip and dirt oval near San Diego. There still tracks for sprint cars and midgets in Perris and at the San Bernardino Orange Show.
Photo: Mark Dipolloni
For race-lovers of all stripes, Auto Club Speedway is still open in Fontana on the site of the WWII-era Kaiser Steel plant (since 1997), performing something of a reverse on the usual pattern. Attendance has fallen in recent years, however, with seating slashed from 92,000 to about 68,000 in 2010. [LA Times, Mar. 25, 2017]
Photo: hookedondriving.com
Finally, continuing since 1953 is the 2.5-mile Willow Springs Raceway, patterned after classic European road courses. Located well out into the desert, near Edwards AFB, Willow Springs is not only in no danger of closing; it has added a street course, clay oval, dragstrip, and kart track. It’s also been the site of many film shoots, including The Love Bug (1969), Top Gear (2013), and numberless magazine, commercial, and YouTube shoots.
What a great look at some tracks I had heard of (and more that I hadn’t ). I think the lesson is that high real estate values are the racetrack’s worst enemy.
Thanks for the look back in time when SoCal was the epicenter of the car racing scene in the US, before it shifted to Indy and other places. SoCal has a history of pioneering new trends, and they certainly did that with all of these early race tracks. I’d have loved to see a board track race in action.
I’m retired in Seattle now, but as a young man I spent many long days at most of these strips ands courses. It’s something that was a part of the great SoCal scene and it is a pleasure to see them remembered here. Good show.
In the teens there was a board track in the middle of what is now the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Preserve near Playa Del Rey. Not a trace remains, and I doubt that one will ever come back!
I know of Ascot park because of Gone in 60 Seconds, I think I remember reading that H.B. Halicki’s junkyard was actually just north of Ascot on Vermont, which is kind of cool.
I watched footage from California Jam on YouTube a few years ago, never realized it was a racetrack
You are correct. His place was just a block north, on the same side of the street – first business south of Artesia Bl. I was living in the area at the time the movie was made. He also drove the mustard yellow Mustang right through the Torrance Mazda service drive, where I bought my first new car.
It’s still operating as a self service junkyard….
.
Now run by some Russians who are not bad guys .
.
I occasionally buy junkers from them .
.
ASCOT ! those were the dayze .
.
-Nate
Glad I got a chance to go to Ascot Raceway while it was still open, as well as Ontario Motor Speedway, where I saw an Indy car race, a N.A.S.C.A.R. race, and a N.H.R.A. race. Missed Lions and Orange County International Raceway.
California has not been kind to its race track heritage.
The attached photo is the old Fremont drag strip site taken in 2011. The vantage is approximately behind where the starting line was, looking southward down the track.
Fremont was torn down to make way for the Fremont Auto Mall which ended up being situated about a mile away. The property sits unused to this day. A very sad outcome.
There’s still a U Pick – U Save lot just north of LA Fire Station 79, which sits at the corner of Vermont and 182nd. They say they’ve been in business for 50 years. That’s long enough ago for it to have been Halicki’s place. No mention of the movie on their website, though. Photo is from the Petersen Museum.
And a bit south we had Balboa Stadium, Carlsbad, Lakeside, Cajon and probably a few more that don’t come to mind.
Also, for the record, Torrey Pines, Hourglass Field at Miramar, Paradise Hills east of National City, Speedway 117 (aka South Bay Speedway) down at the border, and I understand the vintage races during Fleet Weeks at North Island in Coronado have just been cancelled.
Really pleasurable read. Cal Jam… what a lineup.
Thank you for a glimpse into a lost world!
Auto Club Speedway was built on the Kaiser Steel plant site in Fontana. Before Auto Club and after the steel plant was shut down, parts of Terminator 2 were filmed there.
Thanks for this terrific ride back in time.
Grew up in South Gate and would Love to know the exact location of the Southern Ascot Track.
My Dad, Vern Houle worked for Holman Moody Stroppe on Signal Hill and was CoPilot for Bill Vukovich in the 1954 Pan American Road Race.
Lions Drag Strip almost Every Saturday night.
Thanks again.
Terry, I worked with your dad a Holman Moody Stroppe in 1968-69 when he built Bobby Unser’s Pikes peak car. He gave me a special deburring file I still have today and am going to be gifting it to a young 15 year old car builder. He signed the file with his last name that is why I know it was his. I heard he had moved to ore. Please contact me at gordons@bickford.net I would like the youngster to know who it belonged to .
I was at the last drag race at lyons they took a couple of tractors and raced them while they tore the asphalt, up so necessary…sigh!,they used to have concerts at lyons also I saw J guiles and carlos santana there great times!I remember at ascot in Gardena on demo derby night for a buck you could get a beer that was the size of a pitcher. i always figured that alone would cause them to go bust. what do young folks do these days to get their wild side tamed?seems like every year we lose a little bit more of what was the cool of that generation were we too loose, too crazy or just too free??
I just stumbled across this articel and it was wonderful to read and, get nostagic over. I raced at many of the post WW2 tracks mentioned from RIR to OMS, Ascot and so many others. Not to be taken as criticism, but there are a few more you forgot, Corona Raceway half mile, Orange Show speedway, and the old 605 near where the current Irwindale raceway is. Also, in the list of Indy 500 winners that ran Ascot, how could you leave out Parnelli Jones, who grew up running there, first in Jalopies on Saturday afternoons with Dick Lang announcing on KTLA-5, and then Midgets, Sprints, and then history at Indy, TransAm, Nascar, Score etc.
I would love to see someone put together a piece like this on the lost tracks of Norcal, There is just as much history up north, and several fairgrounds tracks still operating.
California speedway in Fontana just had its last race this year 2023. There’s talk they may build a short track at same location in the future,let’s hope!
?! They’re closing it down ?! .
First Irwindale Speedway to build a brewery (oh the irony) and now Fontana Speedway ? .
Sad times .
Great Article!
There is talk they may build a short-track on part of the land of Fontana Speedway. But the road course that was in the infield of the big oval is definitely gone.
https://abc7.com/auto-club-speedway-fontana-nascar-last-race/12890215/
Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino is still active, the longest continually-running racetrack in the West Coast. According to their website, the track hosts “various stock car divisions including Pro Late Models, Bandos, Legends, Street Stocks, Pro 4’s, Stock Pony, Sport Compact, American Race Trucks, Hotpit Autofest Drift Competitions, Demo Derby’s, Car Shows, Jr. Fan Club bike races & more!” I’ve been there once long ago when I was little, and what little of I remember of it, it was fun but very, very loud, as might be expected.
https://www.orangeshowspeedway.org/about-the-track.html
Irwindale Speedway, with twin banked 1/2 mile and 1/3 mile paved tracks, is still operating, it even ran races during the pandemic, and operates a dragstrip as well:
https://irwindalespeedway.com/track-info/
https://irwindalespeedway.com/track-info/
There used to be many “Speedway” flat-track motorcycle race tracks in Southern California, the last three still operating are the famous Costa Mesa, Perris, and City of Industry.
https://www.speedwaybikes.com/tracks/CaliforniaTracks.htm
The remnants of “Fontana Drag City” still remain as they are in the right-of-way of major power lines:
https://www.thegentlemanracer.com/2010/07/lost-dragstrip-fontana-drag-city.html
Wondering what kind of cars are used for ‘stock street’. Days of finding cheap older RWD coupes are in the past. Favorites like GM G bodies are in demand as project cars and are are “too nice” to trash at a track.
Are they running 2000’s Ford Panthers still? Last time I went to dirt track was 2004, and were still running Caprices.
Good that demo derbies have moved on to FWD cars/minvans. Also, there are pickup demos. Easy to find/watch them on You Tube. At a certain age, (25-40 yrs?) vintage cars are too scarce, nice and desirable to destroy at dirt tracks.
I posted an earlier comment, which seems lost, but if it shows up later I apologize for the double-post.
California Speedway (Fontana) sold a bunch of their land, they may build a short track on the remaining, but the big oval and the road course on the infield are both gone.
Irwindale ( saved in 2018) and Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino are still running, though! Irwindale has a 1/2 mile and 1/3 mile paved oval, and Orange Show has a 1/4 mile paved oval. Orange Show is the longest-running automobile race track west of the Mississippi.
There are only 3 motorcycle speedway (1/8 mile or so) flat tracks left in SoCal, from their Bruce Penhall heyday in the 1970’s and early 1980’s where there was a different track running a race practically every night of the week. Now there is just the long-established Costa Mesa, City of Industry, and Perris. Still, SoCal riders regularly move on to the British and European tracks and win World Championships, for example Greg Hancock was the World Champion 4 times between 1997 and 2016.
Fascinating article, thank you!
Grapes grow on the best dragstrip on our North island, Thunder park is no more.
Urban sprawl, rising real esate prices, and what really annoys me, the ****s who move into the area, then bleat about the existing racetrack.
Had the same issue with my local racetrack, Lakeside. It’s still going, albeit with some noise restrictions.
And it’s busier than ever. Driver training, cruise days, theme days. There’s something on every weekend.
Those who move in then want to change everything are a plague upon America .
I’m not a racing fan, but these names are very familiar to me from reading Hot Rod and other Street Rod mags in the ’70’s. I spent a couple of years working in LA in the early 80’s and became familiar with many of these locations, after the tracks had closed. I lived in Newark, just up the road from Fremont, in the late 60’s and ’70’s and never went to the drag strip, though I’ve been to the current landfill numerous times!
Living in San Jose since the mid 80’s, I was familiar with the San Jose MIle track at the fairgrounds, mostly through mototrcycle mags, but only attended one sprint car race there.
There was a proposal to make the San Jose site into a Nascar level track. The idea was to run muffled race cars, but the plan didn’t gain much traction. The impact on local area traffic would have been terrible, and the plan was moved to the Sears Point/Infinion location.
My Mom grew up in the Berkeley /Richmond Area and she told me that there was a board track in Emeryville back in the 1930’s. The Doble steam cars were also built in Emeryville. The Besler company bought the factory after Doble ceased production. The factory building at 4053 Harlan St. was converted to loft apartments in 1979. It still looks the same from the outside.
Thanks for a well researched article.