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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
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Plethora Of Race Tracks by Norm Bogan |
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Southern California race fans have
gone through a renaissance over the past few years.
For many years, major series such as CART and NASCAR sanctioned events at
Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Raceway.
Local fans got to see all the big boys show their stuff and then, with
developers lurking on the doorstep, first Ontario, then Riverside fell from
existence in the eighties. We suddenly had to travel nearly four hundred miles or
take a peek at the increased TV coverage. Many
were able to adjust, since they could follow their local heroes on Saturday
night and then catch up on Winston Cup and CART on Sunday TV. In 1990,
Ascot Park was the next sacrifice on the altar.
Dirt track racing on Saturday was now nearly a hundred miles away as the
long time Ascot based CRA now called Bakersfield, “home”.
At mid season of 1995, Saugus Speedway, suddenly shut down, leaving this
fertile spawning ground for many of the top pavement stock car drivers in the
country, out in the cold. These
drivers and teams now had to travel to Mesa-Marin, El Cajon and Orange Show, or
another even further venue to compete. This
year, one of the fine race facilities in northern California, San Jose Speedway,
has dropped the normal weekly programming and opted for a limited number of
special shows. This leaves an area
with a large population base in the lurch, much the same as their southern
neighbors a few years earlier. San
Jose has been supposedly “on the ropes”, for several years, as the Fair
Board has threatened to dismantle the facility to develop other projects. At fairgrounds, the promoter often does not share in the
concessions or the parking, so he depends on the front and back gates to make
his purse, pay the help and hopefully, come away with a few bucks for himself.
Obviously, it became a futile battle and the decision was made to only
run special shows and drop the weekly stock car and open wheel programs.
San Jose has a long history of racing and many heroes emanated from there
over the years. This track picked
up much of the slack, when Baylands went dark.
Now many of the weekly racers must travel longer distances to other
tracks or join a Saturday night bowling league.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? A little
over a decade ago, Raven Raceway opened in Tucson.
It was a fine 3/8-mile clay track, a well-prepared facility and a
showplace. Over the years, they
held open wheel extravaganzas and some quality stock car shows.
The track was so well liked, that International Speedway Corporation (NASCAR’s
France Family), bought the track, paved it and renamed it Tucson Raceway Park.
It remains a quality facility and now hosts the NASCAR Winter Heat
series. Fans in southern Arizona
were left wanting for a good old dirt track.
Finally, Saguaro Raceway was developed and now Tucson has two quality
tracks, for those of asphalt or dirt persuasion. The
eastern Sierra region has had racing over the years, with many sanctioning
bodies traveling from California to compete there.
As often happens, tracks come and go, leaving fans yearning for a good
local race plant. The Thunder Bowl
now offers a good dirt track show for the fans in this area.
As
always, rumors fly and in the early nineties, local fans were promised new dirt
tracks in Lancaster, Pomona, Hemet, Perris and even a combination paved/dirt
facility at Irwindale. Finally,
Ascot’s replacement would appear. In 1996,
a rose bloomed in the desert, as Perris Auto Speedway was built in about
six-weeks. This was a state of the
art facility, with outstanding lighting and sound systems, clean and plentiful
restrooms, a concession midway and accommodating seating.
When Perris opened, fans came from all over the country to see this
Class-A track. The
return of the big track and major league racing to southern California, was the
highlight of 1997, as Roger Penske converted the old Kaiser steel mill at
Fontana into California Speedway. Here
again was a facility to provide all the amenities to fans, racers and sponsors.
How many tracks around the country have mister stations for warm summer
days? Since opening, the
track has posted two attendance records for sporting events in California.
The two-mile oval provides a great stage for CART and NASCAR to display
their wares. As time goes on, this
facility will increase both, seating and corporate viewing areas, to bring even
more interested parties into the sport. Now the
old Saugus fans will get their payback as a new pavement Taj Mahal prepares to
open at the end of March. Irwindale,
like Perris before it, is a state of the art facility.
This is a two-track complex, with banked half-mile and banked third-mile
racing surfaces. Undertaking a
vigorous schedule, with Friday and Saturday night programs, they will run
numerous classes of stock cars, with NASCAR sanction, in addition to periodic
running of USAC Sprints, Midgets, TQs and the potent Super-Modifieds.
Also on the schedule, is a USAC Silver Bullet race.
There are high hopes of landing both a NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Busch
Grand National race soon.
Indeed,
the southern California race fan has been blessed over the past three years. We have regained and in fact added to the programs of the
major sanctioning bodies. New homes
were created for many displaced racers. All
the new facilities have gone the extra mile to add creature comforts,
non-existent in the old tracks. This
year, you will have to choose if you want dirt or pavement on Saturday night and
then periodically, a decision will face you on days at California Speedway also.
Further away, fans in Arizona, Nevada and northern California are either
lamenting or rejoicing over speedway development in their neighborhood. Let me
warn you, that the ticket prices will not be the same as you experienced at the
old tracks, but the venues hope to offer a lot more bang for your buck. Don’t hesitate to call attention to items of concern at the
speedways, but please do it in a constructive, civil manner and sign your name.
Your suggestion may become the next “state of the art” item, found at
a racing venue. If the fans support
these facilities, then it can be a win-win situation.
The fans get good racing action and the operators realize a profit on
their investment. It sure is a lot
less expensive than a NBA game and you will not find too many spoiled
multimillionaire drivers to watch. |
