Irwindale Speedway will close

[ron.brown11]

Unfortunately, as I expected, Irwindale Speedway will close in Dec. Tim Huddleston made the announcement yesterday. With him and his family now running Kern County Speedway, and apparently running some/all of the racing at The Bullring in Las Vegas, it was inevitable I guess. The Huddleston family was huge in keeping Irwindale open. He had some money backers funding it, but it was their tireless work that made it function over the last few years. It's a great facility, and I hate to see it go away. Former ARCA West team championship owner Bob Bruncati, was the main financier of the operation.

Bob owns a couple of Ford dealerships (Sunrise Ford), located in North Hollywood & Fontana. Like us all, he's not getting any younger. I think that he won 4 championships in the ARCA West series. Derek Thorn won 2 championships for Bob in 2013 & 2018. Bob should have kept Derek in the car in the years between 2013 and 2018, as I'm pretty certain he would have won more championships. Jagger Jones, Parnelli Jones' grandson, also raced for Bob, winning 1 race and the Rookie of the Year in 2019. Jake Drew won the 2022 championship for Bob, then he shut down the team at the end of that season. Thorn's the guy that surpassed my friend, Jim Pettit II for SRL championships and wins. Thorn was racing the SRL & West series' at the same time. It wasn't easy, as there were several dates that they didn't run at the same track.  Thorn probably won more races & championships in the SRL series, but the West cars could have gotten him to a truck ride, as the chassis' are pretty similar. At the end of the 2022 season, his SRL team shut down. Thankfully not before he finally won the Snowball Derby in 2022. Prior to the 2022 win, he had 2 or 3 Derbys where he lead nearly every lap, only to have something happen. Usually it was with a big lead, then a caution with a lap or two to go. He's also won the Snowflake 100 (Pro LMs) during the Derby weekend. I'm pretty sure that he's won that race twice.

Bubba Pollard has won the Snowflake race twice, but has been snakebit in the Derby. But hey, there's still hope. The entire Derby week will be aired on FloRacing this year. It will not be available as a stand alone pay for view, as it has been in the past. I hope that they will continue to carry it on Flo. One of these days I'm going to finally go there for the show. 

[MikePeters95]

This was a world class facility, I'm thankful thanks to drifting I've probably been there 20+ times for all kinds of events.  It's been getting swallowed up by Los Angeles for a long time.  The location was pretty excellent as well.  It was literally in Los Angeles right off a freeway.

About 10 years ago LA had 3-4 short tracks in it's metro. It's a tale of the times.

[24nomo]

Yes, another sad day.   It is amazing that the East Coast is literally booming with short track racing and the rest of the country is dead.  

[ron.brown11]

11 hours ago, MikePeters95 said:

This was a world class facility, I'm thankful thanks to drifting I've probably been there 20+ times for all kinds of events.  It's been getting swallowed up by Los Angeles for a long time.  The location was pretty excellent as well.  It was literally in Los Angeles right off a freeway.

About 10 years ago LA had 3-4 short tracks in it's metro. It's a tale of the times.

Mike, I'll always have a love/hate relationship with Irwindale. Irwindale came about after the success of the Winter Heat years at Tucson Raceway Park. A guy named Bob Molder (I hope that I remember the spelling of his last name correctly), owned Wide World of Maps in Phoenix. He was hired by the group that built Irwindale, to topographical map of Tucson Raceway Park from the air. TRP is a 3/8 mile track, but they wanted Irwindale to be a 1/2 mile track. So they just stretched the straightaways, problem solved. They made it progressive banking, just like TRP, but the pit entrance & exit were a bit different, and that caused problems. TRP's pit entrance & track entrance are in turn 2, with a pit entry lane at the top of turns 1 & 2. Irwindale pit entrance is at the end of the front straight, and the track entrance is at the exit of turn 2. Irwindale's first fatality happened, at the turn 1 track exit to the pits. There was several other bad crashes there too. For the life of me, I can't remember where the second fatality occurred, but I believe it was in turn 2, at the pit to track entrance.

There was one other deviation from TRP's design. About 2/3 down the back stretch, the builders decided to make a "cold" entrance to the track. The idea was to station some emergency vehicles there, so as not to take as long to respond to something in 3&4. It sounded good on paper, but that opening was where some pretty hard crashes happened. The last one caused the death of my friend, John Baker, with a basilar skull fracture. Yeah, just like Earnhardt, Adam Petty, Dean Roper, & Kenny Irwin. John was a local racer from Tucson, that moved to the NASCAR Southwest Tour, and he was good too. He was racing a few laps into the race that night, and he got right hooked, just before that track opening. He went driver's door first, into the wall opening's far side. He was dead on impact. I think that the other driver was Sean Woodside, but there's things about that night that I've tried to forget. Three days after John's death, K&K Insurance (go back to the 70s and see the #71 Charger/Daytona driven by Bobby Issac), pulled Irwindale's insurance, closing them down. They were required to fill in that opening, and alter the track exit to the pits, before they would re-issue their coverage. I think that they were closed for a couple of weeks. John was the third fatality for Irwindale, in just 3 years. Thankfully John's was the last fatality that I know of there. 

When the original owners were tired of it, they sold it to Toyota. Toyota bought it because they were shooting many of their car commercials there, and the decided that it was cheaper to own the track, as opposed to renting the track for commercials. That lasted for a few years, until they decided that showing cars on a race track wasn't a good idea anymore. I'm pretty sure that's when Bob Bruncati got involved with Tim Huddleston, to keep it opened. I had already moved back to TX, so I'm not positive on that. They were pretty smart to go with the "all of the above" approach, by filling as many nights of the week with something automotive. Drifting, drag racing, circle track, swap meets, etc. It worked pretty good. But just like Fontana, the land was too valuable to remain a race track, no matter how many events they had. The location was awesome, and access was just as good. Back in the 70s, the Ontario Motor Speedway sat right beside I-10. It was a copy of the Indy track, and it was really fancy. It got swallowed up by urban sprawl. Mainly it was commercial, with some residential zoning. That's been for over 40 years ago, but there are still small sections of the track still there, as of about 6 years ago. Some small sections of the outside wall and some track surface. I still find that amazing. I think that Irwindale was the last of the LA I-10 corridor tracks. 

[ron.brown11]

7 hours ago, 24nomo said:

Yes, another sad day.   It is amazing that the East Coast is literally booming with short track racing and the rest of the country is dead.  

It's bleak in SoCal for sure, but all isn't lost yet in CA. There are still about a half dozen asphalt tracks still in there. Kern County is by far the best facility. Madera is really good too. The others are really tight bullrings, and tend to be harder on equipment. But they all seem to draw decent car counts. The West coast isn't devoid of decent tracks though, but they're geographically far apart. Tucson, Las Vegas, 2 tracks in Colorado, 2 in Washington, and Idaho, are all still doing decent by the accounts that I've read, and the racing I've seen online. What makes the Atlantic coast look so active, is the proximity of the tracks to each other. Most of the tracks are in VA, NC & SC. I can't think of a GA track anymore. FL is down to Five Flags & New Smyrna. So it's Five Flags in Dec, and New Smyrna in Feb. Five Flags also has a good weekly series in the summer months. Chris Davidson could give you a much better idea of their weekly racing.

Tucson has their Chilly Willy races in mid-Jan, and they always have a great count of Supers, LMs & legends. Tucson's weekly racing doesn't have nearly as good of car counts, compared to when I was racing there. The falloff started after NASCAR sold the track lease to the Deery Brothers after the last of the Winter Heat Series. At that time, the Deery family operated a half dozen tracks in the midwest. Now they have either sold their tracks, or closed them down. New Smyrna doesn't seem to be as strong with their weekly racing, and I say that from looking up results from there online. So I don't have anything more than that as a reference point. But the 2 biggest things that give me hope for the west coast asphalt racing scene is this. The involvement of Kevin Harvick is a big one. The other is something that I've said many times before. They're starting to look at how the dirt late models have very similar rules, and they're trying to make that happen with the asphalt LMs. The Pro LM rules for the CARS Tour, and the SRL are nearly identical. Super LMs are much more prevalent on the west coast, whereas LM stocks and Pro LMs are on the east coast. In the midwest, Super LMs are the norm too. Rules & purses are the biggest hurdles for all of asphalt racing, no matter where they race, or what class the run. For the first time in several years, I do have hope. As is always the case, time will tell..

[MikePeters95]

So Irwindale actually has never been owned by anyone in the last many years.  Ground leases have happened.  I can't recall who the people were, but Formula Drift has had their "last ever irwindale event" like 10 times now, it turned into an ongoing joke.  I think i went to two of the "last ever" ones.  The ground lease has been sold to like 4 different parties.  Nobody has owned a spec of dirt that place was built on in decades.  Toyota paid for 10 years for naming rights to two different ground lease owners.  This is why they've been on and off again with weekly/monthly races and at the end of every year from like 2011-2017 or so whoever had the lease would file bankrupcy and onto the next.  It was a mess. 

Here is an article I Google'd and skimmed that seems to go into some that from a couple years ago, it's a very interesting piece of property with the ground lease mess.

https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/irwindale-speedway-sold-to-la-developer-could-turn-into-industrial-park

Sadly this time is actually the "last ever" event.

Here is a cool picture of my company car and my buddy / boss at the time Vaughn Gittin Jr's RTR Mustangs there when we were shooting some media stuff.

Was an awesome place.  Will probably not see anything like that again in LA in my lifetime.  Sad.

 

[ron.brown11]

10 hours ago, MikePeters95 said:

So Irwindale actually has never been owned by anyone in the last many years.  Ground leases have happened.  I can't recall who the people were, but Formula Drift has had their "last ever irwindale event" like 10 times now, it turned into an ongoing joke.  I think i went to two of the "last ever" ones.  The ground lease has been sold to like 4 different parties.  Nobody has owned a spec of dirt that place was built on in decades.  Toyota paid for 10 years for naming rights to two different ground lease owners.  This is why they've been on and off again with weekly/monthly races and at the end of every year from like 2011-2017 or so whoever had the lease would file bankrupcy and onto the next.  It was a mess. 

Here is an article I Google'd and skimmed that seems to go into some that from a couple years ago, it's a very interesting piece of property with the ground lease mess.

https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/irwindale-speedway-sold-to-la-developer-could-turn-into-industrial-park

Sadly this time is actually the "last ever" event.

Here is a cool picture of my company car and my buddy / boss at the time Vaughn Gittin Jr's RTR Mustangs there when we were shooting some media stuff.

Was an awesome place.  Will probably not see anything like that again in LA in my lifetime.  Sad.

 

I know Mike that it has always been a leased property, and all that entails. I lived it first hand with the Pima County Fair Board, NASCAR and the Deery Brothers. I was there when it was announced that the then closed Raven Speedway (a half mile dirt track at that time), lease was being signed, and would re-open as a 3/8 mile asphalt track, and that NASCAR would hold that lease. The track GM would be Brian France. Yeah, that Brian France. The reason why NASCAR was going to run this track was because in the early 90s, NASCAR's star drivers were starting to retire. NASCAR didn't feel like they had a "good farm system" for the next stars. Their plan was to gain leases at strategic areas around the country, and to develop that next gen driver. Tucson was the first. If I remember correctly, it was a 20 year lease. 

As I had only lived in Tucson for less than a year when it was announced, I had no idea what kind of racing history the area had. For every 1 person that I heard say Great!, I heard 100 say that Tucson was a dirt racing community. Well, that didn't sound promising. On opening day in 1993, I was there, and arrived about 2 hours before the gates opened. I had no idea if anyone would show up, or if anyone actually had any asphalt race cars. The track had seating for about 3,000 people, and they were nice aluminum seats. Everything at the track was new, and it was spotless. The track walls were painted red & white, with Winston Logos everywhere. Then came the first problem. Over 10,000 people showed up. The Pima Co fairgrounds sit about 9 miles east of Tucson, and there are 2 roads that lead to the track, and both had been transformed into parking lots. The sheriffs office had about a dozen deputies trying to get traffic moving. NOBODY expected that kind of turn out. Next, the ticket window only had 2 people to man this very small ticket booth. The track sold all of the seating, and allowed about another 1500 people in for standing room only, free of charge. Problem #3, nowhere near enough food or drinks were available, and the track had to build a shuttle service of track employees, to go get more supplies. Problem #4, there wasn't anywhere near enough restrooms, leading to toilets overflowing. To say that it was a mess, was a massive understatement. Before the National Anthem was sang, Brian France stood on the front stretch with a mic. The first words out of his mouth was I'm Sorry! He then went on to say, that if they would come back next week, all of the things that have gone wrong today will be fixed, and fixed right. He did not lie either. The following Sat, that 2 person ticket both had been replaced with a 10 window both, and all 10 windows were opened. He brought on 5-6 food trucks, over 100 port-a-potties. They bladed off another 10 acres for parking. He brought in more new aluminum bleachers for 5000 seats. Again, before anything started, he addressed the overflow crowd. He again apologized about the port-a-potties, saying that in 2 weeks there would be 3 more seperate restroom buildings built, and that 2 new concession faculties were coming, but it might take a month to get them completed and inspected. He didn't lie, as it was all done. Oh, and the racing was pretty good, considering that nobody had ever raced asphalt before, and many were racing converted dirt cars.

And for 7 seasons things were amazing. In that time, NASCAR never leased another track anywhere in the country. It seemed that their idea of a farm system wasn't needed, as team owners were still managing to find good drivers, to take the place of the retiring ones. That's not to say they didn't accomplish something there, as TRP and ESPN showed that there were some pretty damn good west coast drivers, and several got hired by NASCAR teams. Brian France was only in Tucson for the first 2 seasons. He didn't go far though, as he moved to the LA area, where he put together the largest TV rights deal in NASCAR history. A man named Bill Bumgarhter (spelling) became the GM, and shepherded everything through the last 5 years of the NASCAR years. Bill was awesome. He was great with the teams, fans, and at generating sponsorship for the track and teams. He was so good there, that when NASCAR bailed on the lease, he became the GM at Phoenix. He did a great job there too.

Then came the Deery family, and they picked up the remaining years of the lease. David Deery became the GM. It started out good, as Bill had left everything in great shape. But there were rumblings starting to be heard by the end of year two. It all started by tech DQing the great Carl Trimmer. There was no doubt that his car was illegal, there was no disputing that. But in AZ racing, 2 drivers are their Mt Rushmore; Bill Cheesburg & Carl Trimmer, both in the AZ Racing Hall of Fame. Trimmer was inducted about 15 years before he ever stopped racing. Trimmer was a great dirt racer, and only came to race at TRP because it was a new challenge (he'd already won numerous dirt races and championships, at multiple tracks), and TRP was only 5 miles from home. He got pissed, and decided to go back to race dirt. And it had nothing to do with not winning, as he won a lot, and was champ 2 or 3 seasons that he ran there. But when Trimmer left, so did a lot of his fans. But Trimmer didn't just leave, he took several of is buddies that he raced with on the dirt and asphalt. More fans left. We lost 6 "stars" at once, and that was just in the Super LMs. Not Good. So with less fans, came less purse money. That didn't sit well, because race cars weren't getting any cheaper. Then the Pro LMs and modified car counts started dropping. Really Not Good.

The Deery family bailed on the lease, and the track closed for awhile. I found out that David Deery had already been the GM at 2 other tracks, and he ran them too into the ground. The rest of the Deery family were very good at running tracks. We got the moron unfortunately. There were a lot of expensive equipment that became lawn ornaments. They had a couple of "new" lease holders, until one finally took. It's now called Tucson Speedway. So I guess that the Deery years were a bigger anchor then the success of the NASCAR years. They still don't have the kinds of car counts that they had during the NASCAR years, but they are making some progress. The closest asphalt short track to Tucson is Las Vegas, and that's a pretty difficult task for most Sat night races. They are probably still fearful of getting fooled again.

Track leases have been the curse of race tracks for a long time. Just ask Nick, as he saw it up close too.. I know that this is a long answer, but like I said above, I've seen this movie before, and had a front row seat for it. A whole lot of not good.