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AutoClub Speedway permanently closes drag strip (1 Viewer)

sammi

sammi

Nitro Member
I just received a Facebook posting stating AutoClub Speedway in Fontana, CA is permanently closing their beloved NHRA sanctioned dragstrip.

My family really went all out to support the track, even changing to Auto Club insurance. We regularly attended NASCAR and IndyCar events to support the speedway.

We feel heartbroken and betrayed.

Mark Watkins
M772
 
My wife and I have ran our little Super Pro dragster at Fontana since 2011. We truly enjoyed running at a clean, well managed and safe track. Even on Test n Tune days, we had first class safety crews manning the track. I think all of the racers deeply appreciated the efforts of the Auto Club and Lucas oil to build the sound wall and keep racing alive 20 miles away from the NHRA headquarters.
From the racer's perspective, the track appeared prosperous, with events every weekend and for the most part, good participation in the Summit Series and Test n Tune days. Again, from my perspective, track personnel were top rate and the enormous paved pit area was amazing. As a driver, the track was well maintained and the runoff was appropriate for nearly all the bracket racers.
I am certain all of us in the SoCal racing community hope a compromise can be reached to save the strip. Southern California, the ancestral home of this sport we dearly love, deserves a 1/4 mile permanent facility.
 
sammi said:
My wife and I have ran our little Super Pro dragster at Fontana since 2011. We truly enjoyed running at a clean, well managed and safe track. Even on Test n Tune days, we had first class safety crews manning the track. I think all of the racers deeply appreciated the efforts of the Auto Club and Lucas oil to build the sound wall and keep racing alive 20 miles away from the NHRA headquarters.
From the racer's perspective, the track appeared prosperous, with events every weekend and for the most part, good participation in the Summit Series and Test n Tune days. Again, from my perspective, track personnel were top rate and the enormous paved pit area was amazing. As a driver, the track was well maintained and the runoff was appropriate for nearly all the bracket racers.
I am certain all of us in the SoCal racing community hope a compromise can be reached to save the strip. Southern California, the ancestral home of this sport we dearly love, deserves a 1/4 mile permanent facility.
Click to expand...

Mark, I think both you and Darr both have good perspective as to what happened at that track. We've run there a few times over the years and despite the bad air have always enjoyed our time there. Nevertheless, the track was never fully embraced by the facility management and as Darr points out, the reason why it never really took off. The one gal who managed the place only cared about the two race NASCRAP would run there and would just as soon closed the rest of the year. She never had any interest in racers let a lone racing and I believe is now the VP of Marketing for the Lakers.

Let's hope the current owners (who ever they are) will do some research into the racing culture and see the upside there could be within that facility and open some of the tracks back up again. Otherwise, I hope the drag racing community throws there support to what they're trying to do out in Banning further to the east.

www.recordgazette.net

Environmental concerns are small obstacles for Banning’s plans for a drag strip

BY DAVID JAMES HEISS
www.recordgazette.net www.recordgazette.net
 
glofria said:
Let's hope the current owners (who ever they are) will do some research into the racing culture and see the upside there could be within that facility and open some of the tracks back up again. Otherwise, I hope the drag racing community throws there support to what they're trying to do out in Banning further to the east.

www.recordgazette.net

Environmental concerns are small obstacles for Banning’s plans for a drag strip

BY DAVID JAMES HEISS
www.recordgazette.net www.recordgazette.net
Click to expand...
The current owners are NASCAR, they bought the facility from Roger Penske, who built it.
 
I knew Penske built it, but didn't he sell it to someone else and they Nascar bought from them?
 
glofria said:
I knew Penske built it, but didn't he sell it to someone else and they Nascar bought from them?
Click to expand...
Technically yes, International Speedway Corporation was the one who bought all the Penske tracks in 1999. ISC was a publicaly traded company but NASCAR owned more than 50 percent of the stock. In 2019 NASCAR bought the shares they did not own and merged it in NASCAR. So the answer is yes and no
 
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Covid, on top of killing off hundreds of thousands of people, also taught AutoClub Speedway and the France family a more valuable lesson. There is better money in storage lots than drag racing. Right before the track closed in March of 2020, we started noticing a lot more storage of new cars and other stuff near the dragstrip. I always thought an RV storage lot was the perfect crime. Once you build it, you need very few humans to run it and the money shows up on schedule every month. I think the AutoClub speedway management learned that lesson at our expense.
 
I would imagine the biggest factor in the dragstrip closing is the fact that the oval is going to go through a massive reconfiguration and go from a 2.5 mile oval and turn into a .5 mile oval much like Martinsville. It was suppose to start after the 2021 race that did not happen and be finished by this coming season but everything got pushed back a year. And the rumor was they were also going to sell off a majority of the property that is not needed. As you can see from the photo below, the dragstrip would almost be on a island all of its own, a very valuable island as far as real estate goes.

aclub.png

www.jayski.com

Auto Club Speedway to be reconfigured to half-mile short track UPDATE – Jayski's NASCAR Silly Season Site

www.jayski.com www.jayski.com
 
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Mark, its called business and you can blame who ever you want but these folks need to make a profit and right now its all about getting the new track built which will a high bank 1/2 mile oval like Bristol. I hate that dragstrip closed and I was at the track number of times waiting for some good news that never came. A month ago I honestly thought it was going to reopen but sadly didnt happen
 
glofria said:
Consider me a forever optimist, but for whatever reason I think that drag strip will be built again. Only better than the corner of the parking lot like it was. :cool:
Click to expand...
From your mouth to God's ears......PLEASE!!!!
I live in San Diego area and yeah Barona is close, but I much prefer 1/4 mile so I spent the last two years running at Famoso with patient hope Fontana would reopen. Unfortunately it takes more effort and $$$ to run Famoso because we usually need to include a hotel stay. We've only gone for multi-day events which I'm cool with, but sometimes a close to home T-n-T or bracket race fills the bill. Fontana was great for that.
 
David, is Barona considering going to 1/4 mile? I read somewhere that the land is there to expand. Also read that the current 1/8 mile shutoff is short; anything that runs around 200 in the 1/8 would have a hard time stopping.
 
Cliff, that would be a negative on Barona. There was some talk about that years ago, but it never would have worked out. The track would have been reversed and ran west to east and about 2 mil qubic yards of dirt and rock would have been required to move. Just not worth it. And that track is not too easy to get to either.

Word has it that the Fontana timing system was sold to a (different) group trying to get a track built out in Banning. They've been running street legal and no prep cars on the runway at the airport out there. Eventually the city want to move it to a different piece of property and make it a 1/4 mile track.

Here is a video of last year:

 
Cliff said:
David, is Barona considering going to 1/4 mile? I read somewhere that the land is there to expand. Also read that the current 1/8 mile shutoff is short; anything that runs around 200 in the 1/8 would have a hard time stopping.
Click to expand...
Gino beat me to it on a reply, but I haven't heard of any plans to expand to quarter mile at Barona. While there is plenty of land, I don't know if it could be extended because it drops off past the shutdown and would require a LOT of fill to bring it up to the track surface. Or grade the whole track lower and move that material into the shutdown. Massive undertaking either way.

The shutdown now is a bit short for really fast cars.
 
My wife and I loved Barona. Great track crew and a good vibe. The shutdown is pretty scary and the penalty for messing it up is pretty "Evel Kneivel."
A wonderful place if you want to make a lot of laps.
 
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