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  *Comments on Capital Speedway:*
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  1.   Cooper posted:
  03.28.2010 - 12:43 pm
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.5 Mile Dirt Oval located in Sacramento. Only one race run in 1957.
Track was closed in 1980, and a monument is now located their.


  2.   Jim Thurman posted:
  05.06.2017 - 12:34 pm
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Capital Speedway later became known as West Capitol Raceway, same facility.


  3.   Andy U posted:
  12.10.2018 - 11:56 am
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31 cars on a .5 mile dirt track. And only two of them I have ever heard
of...Eddie Pagan and Parnelli Jones.

Side note. ...Capital is money, CapotOl is government.

This current "West Capital Raceway is now (2018) called Sacramento
Speedway Park. Looks like just a dragstrip is in operation. Just north
of the strip is definitely the bones of an old track. You can see the
stands (berm) too.

This is just south of Mather (Mather AFB). There is no sign of this
racing facility on the 1:250000 USGS map from 1956. Maybe it is not the
place.

The 1967 USGS Carmichael CA map shows the dragstrip but NOT the ghost
track or the grass track beside the dragsrtip. The website is horrible
but notes in the history of the strip that it was built in 1964. No
mention at all of the ovals on the same grounds. So....this is NOT the
place.



Thie was a racetrack at the fairgrounds that might be the place. It
shows on the Sacramento 1967 map. Looks like now the 1/2 turns are under
the Cal Dept of Justice and the parking lots. This track sure looks like
more than .5 miles. The infield was a pond.

Moving right along, there is another track on the 1966 map. It is at
what I guess was the "new" fairgrounds. It is called the Cal Expo Race
track now. It looks to be about 3/4 mile track. Lakes inside now but not
in 66.
This might not be the place... wiki: In 1968, the State Fair moved to
its current location in the center of the City of Sacramento to the
California Exposition (known as Cal Expo) at 1600 Exposition Boulevard.


OK, so now the 1954 map shows the DOJ track but no sign of the Cal Expo
track.

Damn....but wait, there's more. Quick scan of map Sacramento West, 1954
shows a darlington shaped track that apparently has a grandstand and is
looks to be about .5 miles. And it is on "West Capitol Ave." With an "o".

As of 2018 this place is covered by the Estes Express Lines facility. I
don't see any trace of berms or other evidence of a track other than the
obvious comparison of the maps.

For now I have to go with the Estes location. Would be great to have a
person verify from firsthand knowledge.



  4.   Spen posted:
  12.10.2018 - 8:35 pm
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Not even Lloyd Dane or Eddie Grey? I feel sorry for your lack of west
coast familiarity. Looks like a good 20 or so familiar names to me.


  5.   SeanS posted:
  10.03.2019 - 7:29 am
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@3. Not related to this track, but that tiny track just to the south of
the Sacramento Raceway start line for the drag strip was a 1/5-mile dirt
track used for Midget Lite (1000cc winged lightning sprints) races. They
used to hold Jet Car burn downs on the infield of it. The whole
Sacramento Raceway facility is supposedly set to close and be
redeveloped very soon. Now I'm really curious what they held at the
obvious outline of a race track to the north of the strip.

Here's a really good article about Capital/West Capital from a local
open wheel perspective:
https://speedsport.com/racing-history/west-capital-raceway-revisited/


  6.   SacramentoAnt posted:
  02.14.2020 - 1:33 am
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@3 Weat capital raceway and Sacramento Speedway Park are 2 different
places. The Link
https://speedsport.com/racing-history/west-capital-raceway-revisited/
says the ?west cap? raceway is 6 miles west of the capital which is
opposite direction of sac speedway.


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