Greetings from Saugus, California
From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Saugus Speedway – Lifetime track #69
The Saugus Speedway is officially listed as my 69th lifetime racetrack to see. Saugus was part of my “group of 71”. What does that mean? Prior to 1980 I did not record official dates of my track visits. Therefore, for those 71 tracks, I have to rely upon my memory of my trips to the track.
The Saugus Speedway was a 1/3-mile asphalt oval track. The track was located some 93 miles north of my home in San Clemente, California. I visited the track at least once prior to 1980 and then again in 1986 and 1991. The track was relatively flat and didn’t allow for much passing. If fact my comment about the racing was simply, “Too much follow the leader”.
The Saugus Speedway has a long and storied history. It started out as a rodeo arena with seating for 18,000. It was also used during this time for old western movie sets. In fact the grounds were once owned by cowboy actor Hoot Gibson.
The place first became a racing venue, know at the Bonelli Stadium, when it hosted open wheel racing on a flat dirt surface. The top open-wheeled racers like Troy Ruttman and Bill Vukovich (both Indy 500 winners) raced there until the track was closed during World War II. In 1946 the track was paved but shortly thereafter returned to dirt. When the famous Gilmore Stadium closed in 1950 the grandstand seating from Gilmore was moved to Saugus. In 1956 the track was paved for a second time. From that point the track mainly raced stock cars. 
In 1995 the Saugus Speedway hosted just the third ever NASCAR Craftsman truck race. Kenny Schrader beat Geoff Bodine for the win. The race had the slowest average winning speed in the history of the NASCAR Truck Series of just 43.526 miles per hour!
The track closed unexpectedly on July 19, 1995 in the middle of the season after the grandstands had been red-tagged and condemned by the city of Los Angeles. Today the track hosts swap meets on Sundays and flea markets on Tuesday. Yes, the Saugus Speedway has had a long and storied history hasn’t it.
You might have remembrances about the Saugus Speedway. If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below. If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com. I’ll try to include them here.
Thanks to Wikipedia for supplying some of the historical biographical information used in my description. Also thanks to several sources for the outstanding vintage photos of the Saugus Speedway. They certainly can give us all a great vision of some of the history from this old track.
3 comments
The track was probably condemned by the City of Santa Clarita as it is not in the City of Los Angeles.
Kirk, I suspect you are right! Randy
My dad was there and saw Billy Vukovich race, I started racing there in 1962 and quit in the late 60s, car number was 404 that I drove the name on the door as the driver was Garry Boyd and Dick Carey drove my number 405, Gifford Runkle drove George Raincocks number 92, after that owned late-model stock cars and Winston West cars for a few years, the money just got too big and as you get older your enthusiasm wanes, took the nine car Winston Cup to vote techie Japan and retired shortly after that from racing