Best short track on the west coast?

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Lately I've been looking at all the tracks on the west coast and compared to other areas of the country, I'd say the west coast is scarce in terms of good hard racing compared to other parts.

What's the best short track on the west coast for car counts, racing, etc? Perris Auto Speedway? Skagit Speedway? Kern County Raceway Park? Ventura Raceway?

Colorado National Speedway & Evergreen Speedway have past history obviously and look cool to attend.
 
AuzGrams said:
Lately I've been looking at all the tracks on the west coast and compared to other areas of the country, I'd say the west coast is scarce in terms of good hard racing compared to other parts.

What's the best short track on the west coast for car counts, racing, etc? Perris Auto Speedway? Skagit Speedway? Kern County Raceway Park? Ventura Raceway?

Colorado National Speedway & Evergreen Speedway have past history obviously and look cool to attend.
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I have only been to Ventura and Perris. Bell and Larson put an awesome show on at Ventura on Turkey night this year. If you go there make sure to take a jacket because it is right across the street from the ocean and it can get pretty chili at night.
 
There are many good ones. Silver Dollar Speedway is a great track. Placerville is a cool 1/4 mile bull ring. Skagit is the most famous NW dirt track, great facility and fanbase. I used to go there when I lived in Seattle. I believe Willamette Speedway is the best weekly track in OR, though they seem to believe that more classes is always better.

Irwindale is the best pavement track on the west coast, and one of the best period.
 
In Cali, i've not been to any dirt tracks but I've been to Irwindale, Kern, and All American Speedway (Roseville). All of them are among the best in the country! Amazing facilities that put on awesome shows!
I really want to make it out to Evergreen someday.
 
toledo47 said:
I really want to make it out to Evergreen someday.
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I've been twice, fun show. I'm just a 90% dirt / 10% pavement guy, so if there's a dirt track racing within two hours of me, I'm going there.
 
Irwindale is first class. Wish there was a way to retrofit so the national series could race there. Theres about 37 lines in the corners.
 
DUN24 said:
Irwindale is first class. Wish there was a way to retrofit so the national series could race there. Theres about 37 lines in the corners.
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It's sad that, in order to attract a NASCAR date, you have to have a ton of VIP suites, media centers, infield buildings that obstruct the view for the fans and 150,000 stands that only get 30% full.

#MoreShortTracks
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
It's sad that, in order to attract a NASCAR date, you have to have a ton of VIP suites, media centers, infield buildings that obstruct the view for the fans and 150,000 stands that only get 30% full.

#MoreShortTracks
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Other than safer barriers, Irwindale pretty much has everything that tracks like Memphis and Nashville Superspeedway have that were hosting Xfinity races a few years back. Its definitely a much nicer facility than Mansfield, Ohio as well. Though its in the same market as Fontana, so maybe that held the place back... no idea... They did have the K&N Pro Series west there yesterday though.
 
toledo47 said:
Other than safer barriers, Irwindale pretty much has everything that tracks like Memphis and Nashville Superspeedway have that were hosting Xfinity races a few years back. Its definitely a much nicer facility than Mansfield, Ohio as well. Though its in the same market as Fontana, so maybe that held the place back... no idea... They did have the K&N Pro Series west there yesterday though.
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Photo finish and the winner wrecked in one.

Why they schedule that and the outlaws on the same night I do not understand. Literally the only chance socal residents have to see either series all year without a long commute.
 
DUN24 said:
Photo finish and the winner wrecked in one.

Why they schedule that and the outlaws on the same night I do not understand. Literally the only chance socal residents have to see either series all year without a long commute.
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Yeah that sucks. Conflicts like that happen all over the country a lot more often than you would think.... I remember last year noticing the same night as the ARCA race at Gateway (i attended that), 15 min down the road at Tri City Speedway there was a $10,000 to win super late model race.... it just sucks to make the fans pick...
 
I haven't been there yet, but Kern County Raceway Park looks nice (even has a hauler tunnel.) They have trouble with car count though and it took a long time to open, so I imagine many of the Mesa teams were long gone by then.
Several years ago SoCal had some pretty competitive tracks -- Cajon Speedway, Saugus, Mesa Marin, and then there was Riverside for locals to "move up" to. All are closed and Irwindale has had "ups-and-downs" the past few years. Losing the Nascar Southwest Tour also didn't help.

Back in the mid 90's, Cajon Speedway was drawing close to 4,000 fans. It was closed around 2004 when the county wouldn't lease the property (went to the airport.) They had two Southwest Tour events per year, Supermodifieds, and supported many local charities. Now it's just a big empty field.
 
I am a West Coaster.

Asphalt

Irwindale, Kern county, Madera Speedway, Stockton 99 Speedway, All American Speedway in Roseville.

Irwindale is the nicest, but Kern is great too. Madera more than likely has the best week to week count and show and they have a 5k and 10k race annually, but Stockton has years and years of history and is a great bullring. AAS is coming along. Bill McAnally obtained the track last years and he is making the rules comparable to Madera so that they can attract the same car count.

Dirt
Perris, Keller(Hanford), Plaza Park(Hanford), Tulare Thunderbowl, Merced Speedway, Stockton Dirt Track, Placerville Speedway, Petaluma Speedway, Ocean Speedway(Watsonville), Marysville Raceway Park, Silver dollar Speedway (Chico), Calistoga

I attend Merced quite a bit. The just had their promoter pass last year in the middle of the season after taking over 2 years ago and revitalizing the track. A couple of the invested racers there have taken control and have widened and added 12 degrees of banking. Should be even better racing there.

Tulare is a spectacle. Just an amazing place to watch modifieds and sprints. Home of the annual Trophy Cup.

Stockton is just ok, but they get good series and good car count.

Placerville is where I go to see the WoO every year. An amazing little town and a great facility with awesome racing.

Petaluma is fun because it is in the Bay Area and it holds moisture very well. Very racey track.

Ocean is a fantastic place. Great temps being by the water and the scenery is incredible. It is located at the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds and hosts some of the best races every year.

Marysville and Silver Dollar are run by the same person. I have never been to SDS, but it has a great reputation.

Calistoga is the most historic dirt track in CA. Known for it's years upon years of hard top racing and sprints. I believe the Abreu's recently took over 2 years ago and have started to bring it back to life. They host the WoO every year in September. Also a half miler.
 
It's a shame Rocky Mountain Raceways here in Utah shut down last year, consistently brought 3,000-5,000 people to the track every week too.

Hopefully Utah Motorsports Campus getting bought by Volvo/Geely can maybe get one going.
 
AuzGrams said:
Lately I've been looking at all the tracks on the west coast and compared to other areas of the country, I'd say the west coast is scarce in terms of good hard racing compared to other parts.

What's the best short track on the west coast for car counts, racing, etc? Perris Auto Speedway? Skagit Speedway? Kern County Raceway Park? Ventura Raceway?

Colorado National Speedway & Evergreen Speedway have past history obviously and look cool to attend.
Click to expand...
We used to have some awesome west coast short tracks but most of them are closed. St Pete was a true bull ring, huge fields, huge crowds and great racing. The Fairgrounds in Tampa had a big 1/2 mile dirt track where the Champ Dirt Cars would put on great shows. As of now, I guess I would go with East Bay as the best dirt short track on the west coast and Bradenton as the best pavement...wait, what, you didn't mean the west coast of Florida? No wonder I have never been to the tracks you listed. :)

Picture of my man Blaney on the pole for a Silver Crown race at the fairgrounds.
1966748_746232985407451_1268522561_n.jpg
 
It's hard not to mention the now closed West Capital Speedway, in West Sacramento Ca. It was a quarter mile dirt track, but on special races, they would open up the half mile track. They could have over a hundred cars for their open shows. Those were the days when super modifieds raced with sprint cars. Shasta speedway is a nice track after sundown. The grandstands face the setting sun, so the last couple of hours before sundown can get warm. KCRP is probably the best track as far as being able to handle a good size crowd, and the track is quite different. The backstretch is higher than the front stretch, but you can see everything. It's a very fast half mile. The biggest drawback to car counts is track promoters don't work together. They often schedule races on the same weekends, so it tends to split the car counts. If they would just work together, everybody could be winners.
 
clarkfn2284 said:
I am a West Coaster.

Asphalt

Irwindale, Kern county, Madera Speedway, Stockton 99 Speedway, All American Speedway in Roseville.

Irwindale is the nicest, but Kern is great too. Madera more than likely has the best week to week count and show and they have a 5k and 10k race annually, but Stockton has years and years of history and is a great bullring. AAS is coming along. Bill McAnally obtained the track last years and he is making the rules comparable to Madera so that they can attract the same car count.

Dirt
Perris, Keller(Hanford), Plaza Park(Hanford), Tulare Thunderbowl, Merced Speedway, Stockton Dirt Track, Placerville Speedway, Petaluma Speedway, Ocean Speedway(Watsonville), Marysville Raceway Park, Silver dollar Speedway (Chico), Calistoga

I attend Merced quite a bit. The just had their promoter pass last year in the middle of the season after taking over 2 years ago and revitalizing the track. A couple of the invested racers there have taken control and have widened and added 12 degrees of banking. Should be even better racing there.

Tulare is a spectacle. Just an amazing place to watch modifieds and sprints. Home of the annual Trophy Cup.

Stockton is just ok, but they get good series and good car count.

Placerville is where I go to see the WoO every year. An amazing little town and a great facility with awesome racing.

Petaluma is fun because it is in the Bay Area and it holds moisture very well. Very racey track.

Ocean is a fantastic place. Great temps being by the water and the scenery is incredible. It is located at the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds and hosts some of the best races every year.

Marysville and Silver Dollar are run by the same person. I have never been to SDS, but it has a great reputation.

Calistoga is the most historic dirt track in CA. Known for it's years upon years of hard top racing and sprints. I believe the Abreu's recently took over 2 years ago and have started to bring it back to life. They host the WoO every year in September. Also a half miler.
Click to expand...

Is Ocean also Ventura Speedway? If so, it is a place I would love to check out.
 
Yogisd1 said:
KCRP is probably the best track as far as being able to handle a good size crowd
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I think the granstands at Irwindale are bigger than Kern, no? I could be remembering wrong though, I've only been to Kern once. Have been to Irwindale 3 times.
Would love to make it out to the dirt track at Kern for a King of the West 410 sprint race someday! Everytime i'm in Cali I can never find a race on a Friday or Sunday... everything in the region is always Saturday when i happen to be out there... Usually a few decent races, but they all conflict.... I manage to put a lot of nice weekends together in the midwest and the south by finding good friday and saturday races... wish i could do that more on my few trips out west!
 
There are no Friday tracks in Oregon either that I'm aware of, or western Washington for that matter. All run on Saturdays. Friday programs are frankly a lot harder to pull off unless you've got multiple tracks in the same metro area and demand for both nights.
 
gnomesayin said:
There are no Friday tracks in Oregon either that I'm aware of, or western Washington for that matter. All run on Saturdays. Friday programs are frankly a lot harder to pull off unless you've got multiple tracks in the same metro area and demand for both nights.
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Evening touring series like the King of the West, USAC/CRA sprints and USAC Western States midgets seem to only run on Saturdays. Seems pretty rare that they do more than 1 show in a weekend. Other regional sprint car series such as the All Stars, IRA or NOSA have 2 and 3 day weekends fairly often. I'm always hoping one of these days when I go out west for a K&N show to catch one of those 3 California based dirt series but it just never seems to happen... Oh well, maybe someday!
 
It actually is kinda disappointing there aren't a few bay area tracks that would work together for a Friday/Saturday combo, along with KCRP/Orange Show/Irwindale also working together.
 
Went to Irwindale Speedway last Saturday night. About 2000-2500 showed up in attendance, 13 late models (usually more from what I've seen), 13-14 in the spec class, 9 legend cars, 6 super stocks, 9 figure 8's. They need to get 4-5 more for the street stock class because that class is lagging behind in competitiveness but the rest of the classes had good racing all around. Photo finish for the legends cars.

Wish the SRL Southwest Tour had a bigger schedule, that series is probably the most legit one I've seen here on the west coast.
 
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We are looking at hitting The Peter Murphy Classic at Tulare this weekend. It is one of the two biggest winged sprint car races on the West Coast every year. We went for the first time a couple years ago. They usually sell out and draw I'd say close to 5k in attendance. Sprint Car Challenge Tour winged 360's vs King of Thunder 360's and USAC Wingless 360's on Friday. Saturday has the SCCT/KOT 360's and NARC King of the West 410's.

We will be attending Saturday night. 4k for the wingless 360's, 5k for the winged 360's and 11l for the 410's.

Tulare is a great facility and they host this race and Trophy Cup.
 
Rpmx said:
Clark. Did you go? Heard it was pretty KA.
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We didn't go on Friday due to work. Planned on attending Saturday night, but it was rained out. Saw that coming from Thursday unfortunately. They tried to give it a go, but had to cancel. The Saturday portion is rescheduled for 6/8, but I wont be able to attend due to travel baseball commitments. I will look to attend the WoO in Placerville and Trophy Cup. Love the Peter Murphy Classic and Trophy Cup and absolutely love the Thunderbowl facility.

From what I saw Rico took the SCCT 360 and Austin Liggett took the wingless.
 
Gonna give it a go again this weekend. Not sure where yet. We have three solid options.

Merced Speedway for IMCA Modifieds, Valley Sportsman, Mini Late Models and Western Race Saver 305 Sprints

Marysville Raceway for IMCA Modifieds All Star Tour, IMCA Sport Modifieds and Crate Sprints

Madera Speedway for MAVTV Late Models (80 laps), Jr Late Models, Toyota Sedans, Bandos

We may be taking a couple newbies with us (doing our job as race fans trying to introduce new people to it) and at the end of the day my Son will make the call where we head. He has a Modified driver that has treated him like a king for the past 4 years that he loves to watch. It helps that he is a top 5-7 modified driver in CA and is a threat to win every race, but he made a fan the day he let my Son crawl in and out of his car after a win. I'm not a big picture guy, I tend to try and live in the moment. I will see what I can get.
 
Great night of dirt track racing at Merced Speedway Saturday Night.

IMCA Modifieds -23
IMCA WRS 305 Winged Sprints -16
Valley Sportsman -8
600 Winged Micro Sprints -16
600 Non-Wing Micro Sprints -14

Show went a bit longer than normal due to a red flag for a 305 driver that ended up needing to be checked out after a rough tumble into turn 1. She was checked in the ambo and released and later ran the main. Real good crowd for the touring divisions. I would say close to 5000 in attendance.

My Son's favorite Mod driver went from 10th to first in 10 laps and won the A Main without touching a car. He really put on a clinic on how to manage traffic at one point splitting two lappers down the backstretch.

I'll post photos later
 

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