Santa Maria Speedway, CA 1965-2021

[over4T]

On top of a very chaotic week personally I got word that our beloved Santa Maria Speedway has forced to, as the current promoter puts it, temporarily suspend operations.

It's the usual reasoning and a several year battle with a homeowners' association near the track and San Luis Obispo County supervisors. The 1/3 mile clay bullring is actually located a couple of miles up the road from SM in the small burg of Nipomo along the coastal Highway 101. Built in 1965 by Doug Fort it wasn't even close to anyone it could disturb and, just like the people who buy a home next to the airport and then b---h about the noise, they came and they complained.

The current promoter, whose name I don't know, says it's financially not feasible to keep fighting it. He's just one of many, and often bozos, who have taken the reins since Doug died many years ago and his widow, Nettie, did the best she could with leasing it out. Doug was an area electrical businessmen, who was very well thought of and well connected and you can bet this never would happen if he was still around.

SMS was, in my opinion, one of the best run bullrings in the country and the regular Saturday night programs of Winged 360 Sprints, Late Model Sportsmen ( now Pro or Super Stocks) , Late Models ( till they died out here), and a Mini or Stock car class back in the '60s-2000s was as good of a show as you could see anywhere in the country. The sticky clay, very competitive racing in all classes, the steeply inclined grandstands with an awesome view of the track and the original pits in the infield made it a destination for any fan along the Central Coast.

There's at least a couple of others on this forum that I'm sure will agree with my opinions on the place; formercrewguy and Late Model Mark and I hope they'll chime in.

Glad my son got to race at SM a couple of weeks ago and he was looking towards another trip down thinking he has the place a little better figured out and might improve his finish. I'm not that optimistic that will ever happen now and am pretty bummed out.

[formercrewguy]

I've been following this for a couple of years now, and there are two sides to everything. SMS was my home track for over 25 years before semi- retiring and moving to Arizona in 2002. SMS is one of a very few tracks in Ca. that isn't a fairgrounds track, which is a big plus as far as I'm concerned. Famous racers have raced here over the years...Kyle Larson, Scott Bloomquist, Brent Kaeding, Ernie Irvan, Ronnie Shuman, and many many more.

When the original owner/promoter died the speedway had several promoters in subsequent years. Some were good, some were so-so. But one thing they all had in common was, they loved racing. Enter Nick Duggan, an Australian businessman who owns waterparks in other locations in the state. No racing background, heck, he doesn't even like racing. He buys the speedway and surrounding acreage, with plans to build a waterpark in addition to racing. Now keep in mind, SMS is close enough to the ocean, that when the sun goes down you are putting on a jacket! Even in the summer. I never knew what happened to those plans, I'm guessing the county said no. He then dumps a bunch of money into the speedway itself (1 mil. he claims) in improvements. It does look better. At this point he isn't getting the return on his investment he expects due to low car counts, fans in the stands, etc. So he starts holding concerts and Mexican rodeos. It attracts huge crowds and noise louder than back in the days of no mufflers!! The housing area above the track, who was ok with racing, throws a fit and sues. The county gets involved, and now it's a big mess. Duggan has decided legal fees are so high that he is closing the doors. That's where it stands as of now.

[over4T]

Bob, Thanks for expanding on what knowledge I had of the situation at Santa Maria. Several other tracks are under the same pressure. Petaluma Speedway, one of the older premier tracks, has been fighting the same battle for several years. The fairgrounds track is located in near downtown and has been getting the heat over noise and has been under a self imposed curfew of 10 p.m. and doing all they can to keep the noise down. It's not a promising situation.

Antioch Speedway, at the Contra Costa fairgrounds, is under the same stressful situation and after long time promoter, John Soares, retired last year local racer/business man Chad Chadwick stepped in and picked up the same old fight. Also, a pretty much no-win situation.

We lost our Ernie Purcell Speedway in Grass Valley to a similar situation back in 1995, the same year iconic asphalt Saugus Speedway closed in southern Cal. That was a particularly bad year as we had been regulars at Saugus for 25 years and after moving north had raced at Grass Valley till it's end. The red clay at Grass Valley was less than 15 minutes from home and after years of towing 50-150 miles for our weekly racing it was sure nice to go race on Saturday, be done by 11, go to Mountain Mike's for great pizza and still get the kids home before midnight.

Now, most weekends are spent going up and down the West's interstates with a voracious big block hauler devouring $4+ fuel with ever longer tows. Billy Moyer's partial reasoning of looking at retirement a few years back that "I've just spent too many weekends killing bugs on the highways" echoes my feelings.

[CIRF]

I sincerely feel for you guys out on the left coast in regards to what appears to be a huge assault on racing and more specifically dirt track racing. It's happening most everywhere but the Cali tracks are the most vulnerable.

It's interesting to read what's going on out there from you guys that are intricately involved and informed.

It's a sad evolution to watch but probably inevitable. We've seen the demise of a couple of hugely iconic tracks here in the eastern half of the country in the form of the Syracuse Mile and most recent the Indiana State Fairgrounds Mile in Indianapolis. Those two tracks are the highest profile to bite the dust but it's happening to less well known tracks, too.

It appears to be a domino effect in that when these anti racing zealots see one track fall they know they have a legit shot at taking other down, as well.