Marty Hollmann's '15 T-Bucket motoring down the boulevard in early 60s. Mazooma, you probably have before and after pics of the intersection.
Here's a film, circa 1940, of what's been determined (on the Racing History Yahoo forum) to be Southern Speedway, sometimes known as Southern Ascot. It wasn't a very pretty track. Midgets on the half-mile. Ed Haddad is the smiling guy with the big nose. Swede Lindskog (from Seattle) in the no. 7. Roy Russing goes off on the back stretch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCTItY3jmOI
That horse was probably thinking, "I told you idiots that cars weren't going to be as reliable as horses but OH NO, you wouldn't listen to me!"
the building that created racing giants and legends..the Harry Miller complex, responsible for many Indianapolis winners
Speedway 605 was on the east side of the 605 Freeway in Baldwin Park/Irwindale... and Gardena (Western) Speedway was north of Ascot Park about a mile
While Los Angeles has had many personaities over the years that were pretty handy as a bodyman and painter, few would stand-out so long as Dean Jeffries. Dean's shop in the Cahuenga Pass, just north of the Hollywood Bowl, was a landmark for many decades, especially as the huge machine from "Damn Nation Alley" was parked outside for at least 20 years.. Dean has owned this super, super-rare GT40 roadster since, well, since they were new. It's the only one of four ever made that is left. Dean has turned down an offer of $5,000,000 to buy it. Anyone who wants a good read about an amazing talent who's still got a few tricks up his sleeve, this is a "must read"
yes, I remember it well...was on Los Robles or somewhere downtown Pasadena before it moved to Rosemead...when it did I had no place to go to get my bike fixed, so got some wrenches and learned myself....suspect that many of us got into hot rodding that way.......anyway, please keep the history coming, really enjoying it!!
Well I just spent most of the day enjoying this thread, lived in El,Segundo in the 40ths, then to Merced in the 50th's and then to Monrovia, Arcadia area in the 60th's. It was a great memory trip for me. Thanks for the great day away from looking at the tube and the stupid racing today.
I finally made it to the end.... just spent the last 3 hours taking in the great pictures. Thanks for posting.... the Before & after pictures especially. I love this old Historical stuff.
Fantastic old film. I guess "Southern Ascot" is the same as the old Ascot Park ? This old film is an asphalt track, and the old Ascot Park shots are dirt. Doug? Race drivers in goggles and dust jackets wait for the starting gun at Ascot Speedway. Ralph Hamlin is driving the Franklin Model H; "Greyhound<WBR>" is printed on its hood. Original photo caption in Los Angeles Times reads: "Waiting for the starting gun in the twenty-fou<WBR>r hour race at Ascot Park yesterday afternoon. In the trying day-and-ni<WBR>ght automobile grind. 1908 Panoramic view of old Ascot Park in the south part of the city Posted this before, but here's another Ascot Park shot: A.J. Foyt, steering his midget car at Gardena's Ascot Park. The half-mile oval opened in 1957 on a 37-acre dump site, but it soon became the busiest dirt track in the nation (and a training ground for many Indianapol<WBR>is 500 drivers). Every type of motorized vehicle--f<WBR>rom motorcycle<WBR>s to ATV three-whee<WBR>lers to destructio<WBR>n derbies--r<WBR>aced at Ascot before it closed in 1990. Photo dated: December 4, 1961
That second photo, above is not the Ascot that many of us went to... There were several Ascots over the years. There were two south of downtown L.A. and one to the east of downtown which was Legion Ascot, just east of where County Hospital is...just east of Soto and north of Valley. I'll try to make it more clear later today when I can find the maps.
Here's more "Ascot" shots, asphalt track. Mazooma showed this "Eliminator" pic in post #447 p. 23. The "Eliminato<WBR>r" thundering through a group of 500 cc. Formula III cars. Duffy Livingston<WBR>'s "Eliminato<WBR>r" at Ascot Eric Hauser takes a long walk back to the pits after the "Balchowsk<WBR>y Special" broke. Ascot
I believe those are at Paramount Ranch. Duffy's T was raced in the 50's long after Legion Ascot was closed. Thats off of the Ventura Freeway. See post #314
If you want a wonderful photo history of Chavez Ravine, get the book "Chavez Ravine 1949, A Los Angeles Story." Amazon has it. Your heart will sink at how neat a place it was before the residents were pushed out for the coming Dodger Stadium.
They had just removed the streetcar tracks from the median in an effort to get everyone into cars (and buying gas, tires, oil, etc.). Looks like it worked.
Wilshire Bl. 1937, Unique to Wilshire Bl., the street lights are still there. Looks a little smoggy even then.
It's so easy to detect a carbureted vehicle today by the smell of unburned gas. I can smell that, look up ahead, and see a '70s Chevy van or an old pickup and know exactly where the small is coming from. Today, with almost everything having computer-controlled fuel injection and efficient emission controls the air is cleaner. Remember "Smog Alert" days? I remember them in the SF Bay Area in the late '60s and early '70s. I'd be out at recess in grade school and the sky over the bay was brown. The sun would be out but the sky was brown. TV and radio newscasters never said it was "smog," they always said it was "hazy."
Engineers Jake Rupe and Harry Cotrill examining hydrogen engine for automobile<WBR>s at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., 1973 Lynwood, Calif., 1972
That Legion Ascot above...they would use those hills and a road coursre occasionally for use with the midgets
The Jalopy Journal
