Remembering Ontario Motor Speedway on CompPlus (1 Viewer)

[robinjackson]

I enjoyed this video remembering OMS posted on CompetitionPlus:

#DRAGRACING: ONTARIO MOTOR SPEEDWAY - DEATH OF A SUPER TRACK | Competition Plus

Ontario Motor Speedway was a motorsport venue located in Ontario, California. It was the first and only automobile racing facility built to accommodate major races sanctioned by all of the four dominant racing sanctioning bodies: USAC (and now IndyCar Series) for open-wheel oval car races...

www.competitionplus.com

I went there three times for the Supernationals/Finals: 1974, 1978 and the last race in 1980. Then, it seemed to represent the future of motorsport. Now, there's no sign it ever existed.

I've mentioned here before, in 2008 I stopped for a coffee at a Starbucks on Milliken Ave. I commented to the waitress that I was sitting about where OMS' Turn 2 once stood. She had no idea what I was talking about.

I'd reckon she was 20-something, so probably born quite soon after OMS was demolished, and she said she was a born-and-bred Ontario native. But she had never heard of Ontario Motor Speedway.

"Guess I'll have to ask my dad," she said.

 

[ocdart]

OMS was an outstanding facility for the time. We attended Indycar, NASCAR, and NHRA races there since we had season tickets. Our seats were in the top row of the infield grandstands - perfect seats since you could stand up and lean against the back anytime you wanted. No worries of blocking the view since there was no one behind you. Another great benefit was you could see the entire backstretch of the oval track.
The best oval track races were the "Twin 200s" from 1977-80 - 200 miles each of both Indycar and NASCAR run on the same day.
I always felt the track would have been better if they had placed the main grandstands on the north side of the track rather than the south so the stands would have provided some protection against the prevailing Santa Ana winds that always blow from the north.
OMS would probably still be there if it hadn't been so poorly managed.

 

[Huge]

That was an awesome video that Bobby put together. I lived on a farm just outside of Indiana back then so I never made it to any races at OMS but I use to see it across the freeway while I was fueling my semi truck at what was the Union 76 truckstop back then which are the TA and Petro trucksops now. I never realized OMS would seat that many fans.

 

[SoCal Racer]

Cool video. We went by there after a day of racing at nearby Fontana just to pay our respects to the ghost of Ontario Motor Speedway.
I'm sure most of you know this, but the unmistakable Ontario tower now stands next to the sand trap at Pomona.

 

[J. S.]

It's hard to believe that such a huge facility only lasted about 10 years.

At least nearby Fontana Speedway has lasted longer, but it's too bad it doesn't have a full National Event-style 1/4 mile drag strip.

 

[Crazy]

Run there a couple of times. Had to stop because of the smog. Couldn't breath

 

[Cliff]

Ontario was the site of the first NHRA 5 second run, 1972, Mike Snively in Diamond Jim Annon's car. He actually lost the race on a hole shot but ran the "5". I was there & saw it. But the run that got me was in the final, Don Moody winning the race with a 5.91. It took awhile for that to sink in, 5.91..... Low ET of the World. And Don Garlits' run in 1975, the 5.63 - 250. Saw that also. The ET stood for like 6 years. the track was very flat & smooth and was really fast in the early - mid 70's. It started to go away in late 70's and it was hard to run a good number. The place really was awesome. You could have a crowd of 20,000 people in the stands & it looked empty. If you sat in the nose bleed section, the cars looked small as they went down the track.

 

[Nick Name]

My favorite OMS story. Had been there for the SuperNationals a few times. It was quite a walk from the parking area to the pits in the infield. One of the Top Fuel motorcycle guys who had failed to qualify, came back on Sunday and parked in the pits. When the event was over he told my wife and I he would give us a ride to the parking lot. We along with others piled into his Dodge Maxivan. The exit was across the oval between turns 3 and 4. Instead of going out that way, our guy drove down to turn one and found a way out onto the big oval. Then it was on. With the Dodge floored we were on a lap. Around turn two and down the back straight. Round turn three and shut down for the exit. An NHRA guy walks up to the van and says "What were you doing out there?" Wayne says "About 85". Then we turned right and exited it.

 

[CRR]

Here in the UK, an annual trip to California for the Supernationals was organised from the early 1970's to late in the 1980's. I went 1972, 1973 and 1974.

 

[Cliff]

That must have been fun, going from UK to SoCalif. Slight change in culture. If I ever get a chance to go to England, the track I'd want to see would be Santa Pod. Have "seen" it on video many times, but to be there in person....

 

[FABMAN]

Bobby maybe you Could do a write up and video of Dallas Speedway

 

[Nick Name]

That must have been fun, going from UK to SoCalif. Slight change in culture. If I ever get a chance to go to England, the track I'd want to see would be Santa Pod. Have "seen" it on video many times, but to be there in person....

Cliff. You should go. We go every couple of years. They do the whole entertainment side far different than we do, It is a must see.

 

[Cliff]

The all-too-short life of Dallas Int'l Motor Speedway

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ most recent stop was in Texas for the (deep breath) O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals presented by Super Start Batteries, and anyone who knows anything about drag racing knows that the Springnationals holds a respected place in NHRA lore.

www.nhra.com

Here ya go Jesse.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

I have so many memories of OMS. Went to every single national event there from the first in 70 till the last. Also went to 3 Indy Car races and 4 Nascar events. Even the one that had Allison winning with the AMC ride. OMS has my vote for arguably the best national event ever, the 75 race. Prove me wrong with that one.

Some moments from going to OMS.

One race, my buddys and I stayed at a "flea bag" cheap motel near the Union 76 truck stop off of I-10. We had been at the races all day on Friday consuming mass quantities of "biscuits in a can" (Beer) Left the track, ate, then hit the motel and sacked out. On Saturday we woke up, it was dark. Got ready and left the room for breakfast at the truck stop. When we sat down we looked up at the clock, we had not checked the time, it was 2:45am!!!! We ate and decided what to do. We went to the track and parked in the lot off of turns 3 and 4 about 4:00am ish. You could enter the track there. We sat on the pit road side stands so it was a shorter walk. Well by the time the track opened for business we were semi-plastered with a full day ahead of us. We were somewhat still young so we made it thru the day with a multi-hour buzz working. We made the wise choice to look at our clocks on Sunday.

Parking in the same lot another year we had a beer drinkers dilemma, sort of. Remember those big green metal Coleman coolers that could hold a zillion beers? They were real heavy when loaded. We kinda did not want to carry that thing to the seats. We had on Steve Bagwell shirts on, remember his multi-car team? We were walking around the cars going thru the pit gate when we came upon one of the Bagwell trailers and got to talking to Richard Griffin, one of the teams drivers. We asked him if he would bring in our heavy cooler in his trailer, he agreed! We found his team in the pits, thanked him, bought 5 shirts between us as a token of our thanks. Carried that heavy thing to the seats on pit road and had enough beer for an army,LOL.

My dad would come on Sunday only to OMS.

TopFuel@Lions….more OMS thoughts to come.

 

[ocdart]

Here's one of my OMS memories - I don't remember which race it was, Indycar or NASCAR.
My wife and I had just bought a camper for our pickup truck so decided to camp in the infield. We didn't have a propane-powered catalyst heater that we had previously used camping - didn't have a builti-in heater in the camper. This catalyst heater would produce a slight flame across the top of the heating element for about 5-10 minutes when you first lit it. I didn't want to just set it on the ground outside the camper to light it and leave it there - and it was too cold outside to stand there and watch it - so I went up through the escape hatch above the cabover bed portion of the camper and set the heater on the roof. I lit it, left it and went back down in the camper.
About two minutes later all hell broke loose when some guy came running up and pounded on the side of our camper yelling, "FIRE! FIRE! YOUR CAMPER'S ON FIRE!!!"
He scared the devil out of us.
It was just the heater doing it's thing.
Oh yeah, for safety we always just set that heater on top of the stove in the camper so any fumes would go straight up the stove vent. We also always left two windows on opposite sides of the camper slightly open so there was always cross-ventilation. No chance of the heater using up all the oxygen in a closed camper.

 

[CRR]

The 1972 Supernationals wasn't without controversey. This from the LA Times.

 

[FABMAN]

The all-too-short life of Dallas Int'l Motor Speedway

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ most recent stop was in Texas for the (deep breath) O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals presented by Super Start Batteries, and anyone who knows anything about drag racing knows that the Springnationals holds a respected place in NHRA lore.

www.nhra.com

Here ya go Jesse.

Thanks Cliff

 

[Cliff]

The 1972 Supernationals wasn't without controversey. This from the LA Times.

Yeah, I remember this. The car Southern was driving had a cast iron 392 Chrysler, and had never run times even close to the 6.03. NHRA said the time was "unrealistic" & threw it out. Drag News had a headline that basically said the team got shafted. Stirred the pot some. Also, Tommy Ivo had been credited with running the first 5 earlier in the year at a non-NHRA track. NHRA said Snively had run the first 5. The Cragar 5 second club did recognize Ivo's run as the first 5. Trivia: Frank Bradley was the only driver to be in the Cragar 5 second club and the 4 second club.

 

[Dragracer]

Ontario was a great place but it never made any money. Between bad management and low crowds after the first 2 years they couldn't pay off the bonds that were used to build it. We tried to get them to run more drag races than just the one but they said they couldn't afford to open the track because of the high overhead of running for a weekend.
At the time it was built my dad was a State Certified Fire Marshal working for Edison. Edison was installing all the major electrical and was asked to help them out. He went out there and set up the whole fire department and trained all the race fire personnel. It was real easy for me to get in all I had to do was mention his name.
Even if Ontario, which was a fantastic facility, was still open you wouldn't be able to run a major NHRA meet there as the shutoff area isn't long enough. When they did run there there were a few cars that couldn't stop fast enough and ended up on part of Turn 1. Even moving the tower back wouldn't give them the shut off the big cars need today.

 

[Al]

You are right. OMS was an incredible facility. But the shutdown was too short even back then and some drivers paid dearly for it. No way could it still hold a National Event with fuel or even alcohol cars. But the track sure left some great memories!