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  *Comments on Ontario Motor Speedway:*
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  1.   Cooper posted:
  03.27.2010 - 7:56 pm
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2.5 Mile Paved Oval. 4.19 Road Course. Track opened in 1970, and was
state of the art at that time. There were 9 degree banking in the turns.
When built; the second richest track behind Daytona International
Speedway. The track was demolished in 1980 at a cost of $3M. It is
estimated that the 800 acre facility, with 155,000 permanent seats and
an air-conditioned private stadium club would have a replacement cost in
2009 of over $350 million. In contrast it only cost 25.5M. OMS is one of
the first tracks to be credited to start the racing boom, creating new
super speedways and legendary racetracks. Hilton Hotel was built on Turn
4 in the Mid 80's and a 11000 seat arena has been built near the
backstretch area for a semi pro hockey team Ontario Reign.


  2.   RaceFanX posted:
  04.12.2010 - 5:41 pm
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Hosted a combination F1/SCCA Formula 5000 race in 1971 on the road
course. The plan was basically to use the race to a warm-up for a
potential Formula 1 race that never came to fruition. The Questor Grand
Prix used a bizarre heat race/timed for points format and was won by
Mario Andretti.


  3.   RaceFanX posted:
  05.29.2012 - 10:55 pm
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The track was a clone of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway intended as a
sort of West Coast version of the famous speedway. It was nicknamed 'The
Big O' or the 'Indianapolis of the West.'

Somewhat different from other tracks Ontario Motor Speedway featured
individual private garages instead of the larger connected garage stalls
used at most tracks now.

The property where the track was sat vacant for several years before the
construction of the hotel and Citizens Business Bank Arena.

With the track long gone the city of Ontario is now somewhat of an
anti-racing town although somewhat justifable as its not track racing
they take an issue with but 'The Fast and the Furious' style street
racing. The city has/had a policy of crushing some seized cars impounded
for reasons relating to street racing.


  4.   Anonymous posted:
  06.09.2013 - 11:31 am
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Only a few miles from present day Auto Club Raceway in neighboring Fontana.


  5.   RaceFanX posted:
  03.28.2016 - 7:15 pm
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The NHRA raced here from 1970 through 1980 with drag races held on the
pit road, the quarter-mile's finish line was the start/finish line of
the oval. The track even hosted the series' championship World Finals
from 1974 through 1980. The 1980 World Finals was the track's last major
event before Chevron bought the track and closed it.

This might be the only track ever to host the highest levels of stock
car (NASCAR Cup), open wheel (USAC and CART IndyCars), road racing (IMSA
GT), and drag racing (NHRA) all at the same facility...to say nothing of
the F1 exhibition.


  6.   Maverick11 posted:
  06.12.2016 - 10:21 pm
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I'm kind of surprised that they demolished the track. It was state of
the art at the time, you would think that they would preserve it...


  7.   RaceFanX posted:
  03.16.2017 - 5:13 pm
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IndyCar and NASCAR races here often used an Indianapolis 500 starting
grid with the racers all starting three-wide. I can think of no other
track where NASCAR ever tried that.

@6
Like so many other amazing things in Southern California the wrecking
ball came calling because the land just got too valuable to continue to
be used for racing.


  8.   Burl Hatterly posted:
  12.13.2017 - 7:09 pm
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A couple of blocks to the West of the old OMS site is a newer city park,
in a nice neighborhood, called Ontario Motor Speedway Park. There is a
kids's jungle gym there with a racing theme to it. The park is a
sentimental ode to the past but very few who go there would know what
OMS was, especially the kids.

OMS was a giant and way ahead of its time. If it were still there today,
with nearly five decades of racing under its belt now, it quite possibly
could be considered the second most significant race track in the world,
and the California 500 Indy Car race second only to the Indy 500 in
stature. That was the plan.

It was financed and built on unrealistic expectations and became a
monetary disaster because of it. Ten years later would have been perfect
timing. And many believe it would still be there today, an icon to the
sport.

So sad. It was the REAL deal.


  9.   Andy U posted:
  12.11.2018 - 5:32 pm
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#7.....Darlington started three-wide in the 50s when they ran as many as
70 cars. Videos on YouTube, easy to find.


On the 1981 Guasti CA map.

4th St on the north, New Haven on the west, San Bern Frwy on the south and
N. Millikin on the east.


Call me a liar but don't call me late for dinner. You can still see some
of the 3rd turn up in the NW corner of that city block. Zoom in and you
see the ghost of the track. I didn't see anything else that might be
left over. No Hilton but it might have changed to another chain.


  10.   RaceFanX posted:
  12.27.2018 - 9:15 pm
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Victory lane at Ontario was built with a row of bricks from the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway running through the middle of it, a sign of
friendship provided by the staff at the Brickyard for its California clone.


  11.   Miatacrosser posted:
  09.19.2019 - 3:27 pm
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I used to go to the Indy car and Nascar races back then. Between Laguna
Seca and Sears Point in the north to Ontario and Riverside in the south,
California was a mecca of racing back in the day. Unfortunately, fan
interest was poor in southern cal. so it was inevitable that these
tracks eventually closed.


  12.   TTaylor944 posted:
  09.27.2019 - 3:33 pm
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I never realized CBBA (now Toyota Arena) sits where the speedway once
stood. I go there quite often for the Ontario Fury of arena soccer. It
also hosts concerts, hockey, basketball, arena football, and just
recently had a monster truck event. At least there is still some taste
of motorsports left on the property.

@9 I can kind of see what you are talking about up there in the corner.
Matt Dillner did a video where he walked the grounds of what used to be
the speedway, and I believe he may have walked this lot as it's the last
area not developed. There is some torn up pavement there that may be the
last remnants of the speedway.


  13.   TxRacer posted:
  12.24.2019 - 7:13 pm
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Did the track really have 155,000 seats? Seems like unrealistic
expectations for the 70's.


  14.   TxRacer posted:
  12.24.2019 - 8:06 pm
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I looked it up there were 85,000 seats and the others were not
permanent. Still huge for the time


  15.   A posted:
  07.18.2020 - 11:43 am
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Lots of footage of the then new Ontario Speedway in Paul Newman's 1971
ABC documenentary "Once Upon a Wheel." It was massive, and it's surreal
seeing the huge place with huge crowds and knowing that it was gone 15
years later.

The 1971 footage shows TONS of celebrities at Ontario. It was truly a
big deal at the time. You can find it on YouTube as of this post.

Sadly, there is only one shot currently on historic aerials that shows
Ontario when active, and even that is only about half the track.
Practically every random old dirt track from the 50's is visible in many
shots, but not this massive one.


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