Closed dragstrips

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I fondly remember all the time spent at OCIR, Lions, & Irwindale starting in 1969. I picked up my 340 FS FB (black on black, now resotred), on 6 June 1969 for $1700 plus $100 for the Cragers he had on it. With only 17,000 miles, it was a baby. My first race was against a '66 Nova owned by one of the guys at the DMV office in Long Beach harbor area. I had no idea what I was doing, but the 340 did and I beat him handily. The start of much fun for a HS kid. My senior year in HS was spend racing at all the local tracks but mostly at OCIR. I had 350 timing slips from there before I had 60,000 on the car. Best time was 13.48 @ 105.38 stock with only the back seat removed and the exhaust pipes taken loose from a collector (no headers). Honed my launching skills and learned to cut nearly 0.000 lights (at least 2 perfect ones). This allowed me to slap BB Chevies as they had no idea how to get traction on the streets.

Now in the Denver area and looking forward to the Bandimere family completing their new facility in Hudson, about 60 miles away. Bandimere (Morrison) was a great track but the altitude of 5800' and the air density which easily hit 8800' at times sure killed performance. Such is life in Colorado, but the views make up for it.
References for OCIR. Some may be broken though. From Wikipedia:
 
Back in Time said:
That's the same with Bandimere in Denver .Word out there it was urban sprawl which is partially true but not the whole story . They were landlocked by the Mountain and needed to expand to be viable . Also they had never had running water there so all water had to be hauled in meaning porta pottys instead of permanant restroom facilities among other things . Long story short CO-PARTS made them an offer they couldn't refuse . Nothing will ever be like the Mountain but they are doing due dilligence on a large parcel of land North East of Denver near Hudson and plan to build a Modern Motorsports park .They thought they could begin construction this summer but the process is taking longer than antisipated .The Bandimere Family has dedicated their lives to the Sport of Drag Racing and I'm positive the new facility will be state of the art.
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I'm glad to hear that. I'd heard when they closed that they planned on building a track elsewhere. I was afraid that was an empty promise.
:thumbsup:
 
Some other closed ones in CO - Continental Divide Raceways in Castle Rock. Closed in the mid 70s. Colo Spgs International Dragway in Colorado Springs, closed in the mid 80s. As mentioend above, Bandimere Speedway, closed a couple years ago although they are working on reopening in another location far east of Denver on the prairie. Won't be able to call themselves Thunder Mountain anymore. A couple are still left, Julesburg in the far north-east part of the state, which is actually one of the oldest remaining strips in the country and Pueblo Motorsports Park.
 
Amazing that they can keep any raceways open in the L.A. Basin, given the value of land and neighbor complaints of noise. Airports are similarly challenged, given the land they occupy, though some like LAX being beside the ocean helps minimize fly-over complaints. Drag racers in L.A. area in the near future may need to plan for drives over the mountains to the Mojave Desert (Palmdale or Victorville) or Central Valley (Bakersfield) to continue the sport. Similar for outdoor public shooting ranges.
 
HPP said:
Some other closed ones in CO - Continental Divide Raceways in Castle Rock. Closed in the mid 70s. Colo Spgs International Dragway in Colorado Springs, closed in the mid 80s. As mentioend above, Bandimere Speedway, closed a couple years ago although they are working on reopening in another location far east of Denver on the prairie. Won't be able to call themselves Thunder Mountain anymore. A couple are still left, Julesburg in the far north-east part of the state, which is actually one of the oldest remaining strips in the country and Pueblo Motorsports Park.
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We can also add the dragstrip in Erie that closed in the late 60's or early 70's and the Dragstrp out by The Rocky Mountain Arsenal in the 60's and later on a Dirt Circle Track was built on that same property.
 
BillGrissom said:
Amazing that they can keep any raceways open in the L.A. Basin, given the value of land and neighbor complaints of noise. Airports are similarly challenged, given the land they occupy, though some like LAX being beside the ocean helps minimize fly-over complaints. Drag racers in L.A. area in the near future may need to plan for drives over the mountains to the Mojave Desert (Palmdale or Victorville) or Central Valley (Bakersfield) to continue the sport. Similar for outdoor public shooting ranges.
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As I recall there was a strip in Palmdale and Santa Maria once upon a time.
 
Workingdog1 said:
As I recall there was a strip in Palmdale and Santa Maria once upon a time.
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Santa Maria was before my time, (and santa maria was too far away) as was "the old San Gabe" a strip in San Gabriel about five miles from where I grew up. (Rosemead, home town of Mickey Thompson)
The Palmdale track was LACR, Los Angeles County Raceway. At one time it was my closest track (except for pomona f#@k the nhra).
I used to joke : take the 10, the 15, the 138, turn right at the light and you're there. (there was only one signal light in 50 miles on the 138. Only a stop sign getting off the 15.
(Early nineties. Time goes by. I bet there's more than one now).
 
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Fremont Dragstrip/Baylands Raceway Park. We had family friends in Fremont. Numerous summer nights my buddy and I would put up a tarp and drag out the sleeping bags so we could listen to the racing from his back yard :D
 
Santa Maria.
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The Eucalyptus trees are still there. 53-70sumthin. Closed before I moved up here. Go to the shutdown and turn right, you'll run into the Go Kart track that is still open.
 
Lots of great memories at Union Grove in “sconsin”. Spent many a weekend bumper hitch “race car in tow” up to the track from the NW IL burbs. Here’s a picture from a track day in 72 taken by my girlfriend who became wife a few years later.

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I heard a rumor the other day. KCRP, near Bakersfield, Kevin Harvick is involved with it. Nice paved 1/2 mile oval, 1/3 mile dirt oval that is getting new operators from the old Bakersfield Speedway, and a moto-x track. That gang from the modern Irwindale is planning on adding a drag strip out there.
 
Unconventional said:
I heard a rumor the other day. KCRP, near Bakersfield, Kevin Harvick is involved with it. Nice paved 1/2 mile oval, 1/3 mile dirt oval that is getting new operators from the old Bakersfield Speedway, and a moto-x track. That gang from the modern Irwindale is planning on adding a drag strip out there.
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Thought I'd heard same. I thought he moved to the Southeast but sure he has a team/investments here.

Worked with some plumbers at Ojai Valley Hospital commuting from Bakie that worked on Harvick cars and naturally were good old boys lol.
 
Workingdog1 said:
Thought I'd heard same. I thought he moved to the Southeast but sure he has a team/investments here.

Worked with some plumbers at Ojai Valley Hospital commuting from Bakie that worked on Harvick cars and naturally were good old boys lol.
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I tell you what, can't ask for better infrastucture for access to a facility than KCRP. Interstate 5 right next to it and offramps right to the driveway :lol:
 
.... but isn't Famoso right down the road?
And famoso is 150 miles from my house.
Hardly a replacement for Irwindale or Fontana (Both WERE under a half hour away.)
 
Unconventional said:
The snow covered hills remind me of the background view of the staging area at Pomona for the Winternationals :D . Well Winternats had that view before they moved them to end of March :rolleyes: Snow might be iffy this time
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Them's are mountains boy! lol j/k:poke:
Yeah, RMR wasn't quite as high as Bandimere Raceway which was about 5800ft above sea level.
But RMR was still high enough at roughly 4300 Ft elevation to cause issues for those who weren't very familiar to carb tuning. Had to help a few out-of-towners in the past tuning their cars.
Had one of the younger Airmen in my unit complain to me after I tuned his 1977 Bronco which had an Eddy AVS carb, he said it ran like crap when he took it off-road and said "I thought you knew how to tune carbs?"
I said, "where'd you go?"
"I took the service roads up that mountain that had that building on the top."
"That's Francis Peak Radar site, it's a NOAA station... You do know that's like roughly 9500 ft elevation right? Remember when I tuned your carb because you're from a town that was only 200 to 400 ft elevation right?"
"Do the math and come back to me, I've been tuning carbs while a part of you was still swimming in your pappy's scrotum."
Then he realized what I was getting at and was quite embarrassed... Well he was a dumbass and got booted out eventually anyways.
I also found out he putzed around with it right after I tuned it and made it run a tad rich. So he now went to 9500+ feet with an already rich tune... You just can't fix stupid :BangHead:
 
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Speedworld, Wittman AZ
Fontana Speedway, CA
RMR, West Salt Lake City UT
Sturgis, SD
Oahe Speedway, SD
Sacramento Raceway, CA
Irwindale, CA
That is the list of death where I’ve run the car….
 
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West End Thunder, Forks Wa has a 2025 schedule
Gainesville Raceway and Bremerton both do also. I can’t find if PineValley in Lufkin Tx is still open or not.
 
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