History The Rise and Fall of Orange County Int'l Raceway

Last week on Oct 29th on which many Southern California racers and race fans mourned, and mourned heavily. The 25th Anniversay of the Closing of OCIR.. there was nothing like being there ....

The Rise and Fall of Orange County Int'l Raceway

 

I loved OCIR!













Click the link for more photos:

http://public.fotki.com/2002p51/racin/orange-county-inter/

 

Man ya got that right!...that was a long nite,I came down for the race and to see my folks when they lived in newport beach......I still got a couple posters from then and even a OCIR coffee cup.now where did I put them damn photos.......glad alotta guys are rememberin the fun days of drag racin

 

Last Drag Race Results ...Los Angeles Times

The Last Drag Race at Orange County International Raceway turned out to be the longest one, too. It was 3:15 a.m. Sunday before Winston world champion Gary Beck ran a solo pass of 5.58 seconds down the quarter -mile strip to win the real last drag race after Doug Kerhulaswasted his engine while winning his semifinal. Beck sidelined World Finals champion Shirley Muldowneyin the first round. In funny cars, Kenny Bernstein beat Mike Dunn and the Hawaiian Punch,Billy Meyer (who eliminated Don Prudhomme) and John Force with a series of sub-6-second runs. an overflow crowd of 15,000 was there to the end.

 

told ya it was a long nite...........love to have a copy of that poster,mine are from eariler events

 

That sucks. I went there once in about 1980. That place was awesome. I remember my favorite car there was a funny car called "the Blue Max". They had jet cars, a rocket car, "the Burnout King" and all kinds of cool nitro cars racing at night with blue flames shooting out the pipes.

So like everywhere else where they lose a racetrack, there will be a rise in illegal street racing probably.

 

Anybody got a time machine that I can borrow?

 

I'll never forget the crowd pouring out of the stands down to the track after the last pass.
what a night for a 10 year old kid.

 

How about the times the fans went crazy and tried to burn down the connecssion stands

 

Wednesday nites were a gas also.Had a real long tow to get my C fueler there ,3 miles down the freeway from Culver rd to Sand canyon.
Them were the days.

 

Orange County International Raceway--- June 1984

Born August 5, 1967 - Died October 30, 1983

 

That's depressing all over again

 

1971 Manufacturers F/C Championship Entry List ... if you had one you were there !!!

 

these were my first experiences with drag raceing, good times for sure!

 

we went to all the nostalgia drags there when I was a kid , ruined me forever! hahaha
moved away in 83 that`s a dam shame ! that was a neat drag strip

 

I've got this old denim jacket that I'm practically afraid to wear anymore. The collar is nearly disintegrated and you don't even want to see the cuffs.

Yet I can't throw it out, and hang on to it like it's an heirloom. And the main reason is because of this patch stitched on the back of it. I got it at my one and only trip to OCIR back in probably '71 or '72.

It was a vacation with my parents to visit some old neighbors, but somehow between trips to Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland, I managed to finagle an evening of racing at Orange County. It was just a Wednesday "run-what-ya-brung" night but it still made a big impression on me. That and the fact that our friends' son owned, or was involved with, an old flathead dragster. Even at that time it was already a nostalgia car and I've wondered more recently what might have become of it. I seem to recall that it was blue with the name "Antique Doll" painted across the cowl of the car.

The other reason I can't get rid of this old coat is that it also has my Polish Racing Drivers of America patch on it.

 

The last time I was out there ( 5 years ago) we stayed at the Laquinta Inn on Sand Canyon. The ground where OCIR stood was still undeveloped has that changed? I sold a bitchin OCIR jacket a few years ago but still have my patch

 

http://nhra.com/insidedragster.asp theres a good article all about ocir and lions in there, ocir is now a fucking office space place and part of the highway goes through where the top end used to be. this is where the staging lanes used to curve around by the tower

 

I was there in the summer of 1969 , still have this.......Z.D.

 

Too sad about all the track that closed up here in So Ca in my early life--I was lucky to have been able to go to all of them, and got to race at most--who remembers the goddamn dip in the track where the tunnel was? Hit my head on the roll bar more than once from that thing! Also remember when they ran rocket cars there--and they set the back fence on fire a couple time--while people were walking between the two sides of the track!!And also remember that it was the first track--I think--to make us put a red light on the back of our dragster--am I right??

 

i remember the fence, the tower lights, the trash cans IN THE PITS overflowing with miller cans, the smell of cabbage, the hot dogs, syrup rich sodas, nitro flames at night, lots of fist fights, steve evans, nitro guys cussing between rounds, riding in the back of the truck down the return road (not to mention on the way to and from the track), the top end soreboards, lots and lots of funny cars, larry sutton, getting peppered during burnouts, splinters from the bleachers, wheelstanders, jets, shirley, gary beck, ed mcculloch, don prudhomme, larry minor, gene snow, garlits, kalitta, pro-comp, napping in the sleeper, sideburns, big moustaches, short shorts, tall socks, super shops t-shirts, contingency stickers, av gas, and ear muffs.

 

Yer right about the red light Willie, remember runnin around the pits lookin for a flashlight,taped a red shop rag over it and duct taped it to the roll hoop and then tech passed me. They did tell me I had to have a real light the next time though.
God them were fun days

 

You forgot the "Fox Hunts".

 

Oh yea ..The "Fox Hunts" where they let the girls in free, (more girls, draws more guys), simple marketing right? Trouble is, it got a little out of hand a couple of times (few to many beers in the crowd) riots insued. I was at one where I remember some girl running across the strip past the finish line, just before a funny car start. She didn't see the barbed wire fence on the other side, OUCH. Then the sheriffs and the K9's showed up, then the idiots set fire to the concession stand, then some guy got hit in the head with a flying beer bottle,(he died the next day), needless to say that was the end of the fox hunts.

 

I just love hearing the old drag race story`s and the old pictures are great also

 

The whole thing was a huge shocker to me. As a younger guy a lot of
the older guys told me they couldn't tear it down, cause it was a national
landmark. Many older guys I know feel that some of the tracks promoters
added to the problems with things like rock concerts and wet t-shirt contests after the races, that these things led to fights, stabbings, rapes
and such the overburdened the Irvine Ranch group in lawsuites. That the mountain of lawsuites were instrumental in the demise, along with urban
sprawl. It always chaps my ass when someone builds a race track in the middle of nowwhere, only to have people move in around it and then bitch and complain about the noise to the extent that the facility gets closed. I
got to go to OCIR a lot when I was very young, and again when I started
driving. Wednsday night grudge, friday night muffler races, saturday brackets and the Hi Perf Swapmeet one sunday each month. I was at the
first Super Chevy with Ron Filkins bad ass 9 second black '57 chevy hardtop and at the last drag race to, and it was a barn stormer.

 

Ahh yes --- The Fox Hunts !!!
Meet a little blonde there 38 years ago,
Still with her.

 

YEA! Wednesday nights were a gas. I drove all my heaps down that strip at one time or the other. Sure wish I had some pictures!

One night my friend ran his 650 BSA up against a Shellby GT350 Mustang and beat him.... the guys pal ran up to my friend and said "I told him a bike could beat his car".
Fun Times!!!

 

Any of you remember 1972 (I believe) when OCIR moved some dirt and made a dirt track for driving roll cage equipped Subaru 360's (called them potato bugs) for a small fee. You would wear a helmet of course, but you could roll them all you wanted, whatever your fancy. Pretty damn cool. Oh, and BTW: they all ended up in a junkyard right off of 1st St. in Santa Ana. Forget the name of the yard but was just passed the DMV after going under the RR tracks.

Yep, they really messed up when OCIR died.

 

Very nice. The little series of posted photos represent an atypical race day at OCIR. BTW, the unlettered Firebird seen in the lane opposite M/T's Mustang was late Charlie Wilson, tutor of Dale Pulde.