Anyone know where this race track was in the late 40s

http://vimeo.com/38922379 wondering if anyone from San Diego knows where this track is today & whats there ? Some really nice cars to be beating up

 

That looks like it may be Bonelli stadium which later became Saugus speedway north of L.A.

 

wow...so few roll bars. Assuming the Jim Rathman they introduced was actually THE Rathmann (2 x n) of racing fame.

 

Yes, that was THE Jim Rathmann and that may have been A.J. Watson's roadster he was driving.

 

There is a sharp pointy mountain in San Diego called Cowles Mountain ... looks alot like the one in turn 3-4 ... if so that would put the track right about where Lake Murray (La Mesa) is now . and the eucalyptus tree fit right in.. plausible but I never heard of a track in that area. but maybe in the late '30s which was well before my time! ... I dont know.

Maybe Pope, the San Diego driver was a visitor.

 

A couple of shots of Bonelli Stadium.

 

San Diego race tracks:

Cabrillo Speedway - no records prior to 1950

Hourglass Field - no records prior to 1955

Lakeside Arena - fifth mile dirt oval and quarter mile dirt oval - earliest date is 1938
above is aka Lakeside Speedway, Lakeside Rodeo Grounds

Montgomery Field - no records prior to 1956 (airport)

Navy Field - dirt oval, ran midgets - earliest date is 1935

Neil's Sportsman Park five/eighths dirt oval from 11/32 to 1933 and a one/fifth dirt oval from 1934

Point Loma Road Race - ± 6mi road course - earliest record 1913

San Diego Speedway - 1 mi dirt oval first race in 1947, promoter was Kelly Petillo. Sprint cars and hot rods

Saugus Speedway - built in 1924 for rodeos. quarter mi dirt 1939 to 1948.

Silvergate Speedway (now the site of Sea World) five/eighths dirt oval - earliest is 1932

These are likely not all, but are all I could find - some obviously don't qualify due to dates of operation.

 

It would be nice if more of us could be beating up our cars like that now. They're not meant to just gawk at. I guess lack of enough tracks and "annoying" safety requirments are obstacles; i.e., I don't like the idea of a roll bar or cage in my roadster and I'd rather sign a liability waiver and take my chances. While I'm not usually a proponent of this sentiment, in this case "ahhh, the good old days" seems true. I wonder if anyone makes a traditional flux capacitor?

 

I have chased this all over the internet, including twice at one forum (and hasn't it come up multiple times here as well?)

This keeps circulating 'round the internets, often with incorrect location and date. Worse, forum messagers pay no attention and posit their musings on where and when it is. It definitely is the Corona Show Grounds/Corona Speedway sometime in 1947. Narrowing it down further, it would seem to be from January to March. This track was located northwest of Corona on River Road and should not be confused with Corona Raceway (1971-1984). Further complicating matters in trying to pinpoint it was the fact that most of the drivers identified raced with roadster organizations other than the CRA. But, it would seem this was a CRA event. It will take checking of the Corona (or perhaps Riverside) newspapers on microfilm in hopes of coming up with the exact date, something I haven't had any luck with yet. The San Diego drivers were visitors, which explains why it was noted in the film (if they were locals, why would they make a point of ID'ing them with "San Diego"? )