Abandoned drag srtip east of Phoenix

[Xplantdad]

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I don't think he looks like your brother, but he does look like he's wearing a wig!

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Yeppers...that's when I definitely had more hair

[427TJ]

Sittin' here with a cold Heineken and a bag of tortilla chips and not ready to go out and mow the lawn--so here's a couple more abandoned strips in NorCal!

Vaca Valley Raceway located along I-80 just east of Vacaville (translates as "cow town" in Spanish) between the Bay Area and Sacramento. Opened late 50s and closed early 70s. One website said that they tried to revive racing at Vaca Valley in the 90s but locals complained.

[427TJ]

If you have the DVD of "Bullitt" you have probably watched the back story on the making of the movie and seen the part where McQueen and the Charger driver (can't remember his name at the moment) are up at Cotati Raceway "practicing" for the chase scenes filmed in San Francisco. Cotati is about 25 miles north of SF along highway 101 and was originally built as a WWII Navy OLF (outlying field) for training pilots. Cotati is just north of Petaluma where George Lucas filmed some of American Graffitti, but I digress. Cotati had a road course and a drag strip and Carroll Shelby won the first road race held there in 1957. Being in California, Cotati Raceway was consumed by suburban development and nothing of the former OLF/track ramains today except a street named "Airport Way."

1965 aerial image:



Today:



Circa-1945 as a Navy OLF:



Found a neat website with Cotati pics from the late 50s:

http://wediditforlove.com/Birky.html







LOVE THAT '55!!!

[427TJ]

Just off of Foothill Bl. (Route 66) in SoCal, just north of the current California Speedway. Track ran towards the northeast from Foothill, which ran east-west.



Track was to the left of my yellow push-pin locator:





Foothill Bl. in the background in this southerly view:



Following photos from the H.A.M.B. thread on old drag cars in action, a GREAT thread. Photos taken by "Mazooma1." Go surf this thread, it's a LONG one, but you will crap at all the killer old photos and Mazooma's are among the very best.

Start here if the link works. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...9&page=193

[427TJ]

San Gabriel was in Irwindale west of Pomona. My pin-locator is a little too far to the left--the track was along the right/east side of the drainage canal and ran towards the southwest/lower left of the image.











You had to have big brass ones to drive a FED in those days:

[John Brown]

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Following photos from the H.A.M.B. thread on old drag cars in action, a GREAT thread. Photos taken by "Mazooma1." Go surf this thread, it's a LONG one, but you will crap at all the killer old photos and Mazooma's are among the very best.

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{edit} Here is the real first page of the thread. {edit}

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...509&page=1


I've been following the H.A.M.B. thread since it started. It's awesome!!!! Please resist the temptation to hit the "view all" button as it overloads their server, and it will overload your connection too. Don't mind the red "X"'s where some of the pictures should be, since some of the pictures have been lost since the thread started. 233 pages and still counting. Enjoy!

[Mark Hickman]

I have been lurking awhile, but this thread really caught my eye.

There is one in NE Ohio, was called Meander Dragway. You can point Google maps to 41.059874, -80.831180 and see its present state. You can zoom in and still see rubber on the track.

My cousin raced here when I was a kid. One cool thing is it was an airport as well. Occasionally they would stop the racing to let a plane land.

We also came close to losing Quaker City in Salem OH, but they are still running.

[Salvatore]

man that is a real nice 68 Chevelle you got! Lets see/here more about it. Sam

[427TJ]

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Update: USGS topographical map showing exact location and orientation of the strip:

[427TJ]

Located 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, Riverside Raceway opened in September 1957 with a road course and a drag strip. Known more for its road course, Riverside did host the 1964 Hot Rod Magazine Championship Drag Races and some of the August '64 magazine coverage is shown below. Cancerous urban sprawl finally made its way out to Riverside by the 1980s and the track succumbed to the relentless spread of stucco in 1989.

Located east of the intersection of two freeways, 395 and 60, and just north of March Air Force Base:



USGS topo map image:



Drag strip, shown in orange at bottom, ran toward the north:



HRM August 1964 coverage:













Grandstands on west side of track, which can be seen running under the bridge at far right:



Top Fuel winner Jack Williams (8.13), far side, defeated Tony Waters who fouled:



1965 photo showing a new GT 350 with the starting line of the strip in the background. View looks east:



The stucco monster finally gobbles up Riverside in this 1988 photo from Wikipedia. View looks east: