Southern California and drag racing have a long history together. Just because that history exists, however, doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to last forever. The area in and around Los Angeles is also home to a number of shuttered racetracks that once hosted drag racing, and in the last week another such facility — Irwindale Speedway — hosted its final competition.
Daniel Miller covered the event for the Los Angeles Times while also revisiting the decades-long history of Irwindale Speedway. Miller noted that the facility’s Thursday night drag racing events provided enthusiasts with a relatively safe way — specifically, one that didn’t involve street racing — to engage in their favorite pastime. A wide variety of vehicles competed there in the final night of drag racing, including everything from a Tesla to “a 1975 Dodge Camper Van designed to look like a clapped-out ice cream truck.”
As some of the racing enthusiasts Miller spoke with pointed out, the loss of Irwindale Speedway could lead to a number of aftereffects, not the least of which is a potential uptick in illegal street racing. The thinking there is that the loss of a legal venue could push some drivers to continue racing — just not in a way that’s safe for them or for bystanders.
There are some other facilities in southern California that maintain a casual ethos and provide a home for drag racers to compete without driving on open roads. Perris, California’s Street Legal Dragway opened in 2023 and was created with the specific intention of, as its name suggests, giving competitors a legal place to race.
As Andrew Wolf wrote in Dragzine last year, the length of this track is such that “purists will rightfully argue against [it].” But at this point, it may be one of the only options left for most drag racers in southern California.
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