Stacey Kent saw Irwindale Speedway built literally from the ground up. She worked for the team that helped construct the short track circuit in the late 1990s.
Next weekend, Kent and the entire Southern California racing community will see the track take its final bow after 25 years as a staple of the San Gabriel Valley, and a draw for scores of visitors from around Southern California.
On Saturday, Dec. 21, Irwindale Speedway is hosting a “Farewell Extravaganza” starting at 1 p.m., which will include a NASCAR short-track series, Night of Destruction events like Figure 8-s and trailer races, a Drift invitational and the ARCA Menards Series West.
It will be another blow for the region’s racing culture, which now adds Irwindale to a roster of now long-lost eulogized sites, such as Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Raceway.
The closure of the iconic venue is to make way for the Speedway Commerce Center Specific Plan, a proposed project to turn the speedway site into a industrial/commercial/business park.
“I’m sad for the city of Irwindale, too, because frankly that’s something that helps put Irwindale on the map,” Kent said. “Another in the how many hundreds of industrial parks and industrial buildings that they have in Irwindale. What does that do for them?”
A little over a week before the last event at the speedway, Kent recalled the grand opening. It was a cold night in March 1999 with a packed house full of excited racing fans.
“You could just feel it in the air,” Kent said.
It’s the passionate racing fans, drivers and participants that Kent feels for the most.
“They put their blood, sweat and tears and their hard earned money into being in events at Irwindale Speedway and I’m really sad for them,” Kent said.
IDS Real Estate Group purchased the 63 acres of land in 2022. The plan splits the site into a 56 acre industrial business park development and a 7.3 acre area for commercial development.
Prior to the speedway, the Pacific Road Quarry mined sand and gravel for construction on the site through the 1960s. The quarry was then backfilled as part of the Nu-Way Landfill that operated from 1973 until 1993.
This history has led to environmental headaches for future developers.
But it’s also been rich in car culture.
Irwindale’s racing history stretches back to the 1960s and 1970s when the San Gabriel Valley Speedway, later dubbed the 605 Speedway, hosted events.
For years, it has joined a larger racing community in Southern California, where fans have seen the loss beloved tracks.
The Ontario Motor Speedway opened in August 1970, at a cost of $25.5 million. At the time, the state-of-the-art facility was designed to be the “Indianapolis of the West.” The 800-acre venue made its mark, hosting races including Indy-style open-wheel, stock cars, and drag racing. But it fell victim to disappointing revenues and rising land values. It closed in December 1980.
The Riverside International Raceway opened in September 1957. It was known as one of the finest tracks in the country, before it closed in July 1989 to make way for a shopping center and residential homes.
Auto Club Speedway in Fontana built in 1997, remains the Inland Empire’s only large-scale auto racing facility. But 2023’s Pala Casino 400 was said to be the last for NASCAR on the 2-mile track as the site will be redeveloped. A short track is supposed to be on the site when it’s completed.
The Perris Auto Speedway opened in 1996 near Perris, maintains racing on its half-mile oval track, and the historic Orange Show Speedway still hosts a variety of races.
Back in Irwindale, a page on the city’s website with information about the project includes in a message in all caps and bolded which reads, “The city of Irwindale does not own the Irwindale Speedway.”
“The City takes great pride in the contributions that the Irwindale Speedway has made to the racing community and will fondly look back on the memories created on the track and in the grandstands of the Irwindale Speedway,” a statement from the city read.
NASCAR driver Ryan Vargas was 9 years old when his dad took him to Irwindale Speedway. From his seat in the grandstands seeing the cars whoosh by, Vargas became a NASCAR fan.
“My dad takes me to Irwindale Speedway and I fall in love with the sport and I fell in love with racing,” Vargas, now 24, said.
Next weekend, Vargas, originally from La Mirada, will be driving the #23 Swann Security/Sandy Vans pro late model car as part of the track’s farewell event.
It’s a full-circle moment for Vargas, who took his first laps around the speedway at age 12 in a Bandolero race car powered by a 30-horsepower Briggs and Stratton lawn-mower engine.
The #23 car has a bit more juice. The pro late model’s 602 crate engine has about 350-370 horse power.
Vargas called Irwindale the perfect short track and fun to race because of its width.
“You could choose from several different lanes to make a pass,” Vargas said. “I love a race track where you can make moves and pass and dictate your own runs and Irwindale is that.”
In addition to the track, the speedway’s drag strip provided an opportunity for people of all ages to take part in legal street racing and sanctioned competitions.
Mike Gonzaga runs the junior drag racing program for children 6 to 17. His connection with the speedway started about 10 years ago because of his daughter Jacelyn’s passion for drag racing.
Jacelyn got her NHRA license at 8 and now 17, she recently won the final junior comp championship held at Irwindale Speedway.
“I won’t be here forever. For her, I think she wants to take her career to the next level,” Gonzaga said. “She will always forever have that memory and we will always have that memory together there.”
Gonzaga said Irwindale’s location made it unique in bringing people together from all over Southern California to one place. He likened the environment at the track to Sam Malone’s bar in the T.V. series “Cheers.”
“Everybody knows your name and it was home for a very long time,” Gonzaga said. “That was the type of community that it was.”
He called Irwindale Speedway President Tim Huddleston and his staff first class and the reason for the welcoming feeling.
“They knew everybody by first name. They treated everybody the same and it was just fantastic,” Gonzaga said. “They made everybody feel at home”
In a statement announcing the final event, the speedway said its assets and events will transition to Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway in Bakersfield for 2025.
Vargas said while the loss of short tracks like Irwindale is disheartening, the West Coast continues to have healthy racing series. He said local racing fans should visit Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, what Vargas described as a West Coast version of North Carolina’s Bowman Gray Stadium.
He urged fans to support their local short tracks.
“At the end of the day they’re not the NASCAR tracks where people don’t show up, ‘well the T.V. dollars are coming in,’” Vargas said. “No, these tracks rely on not just the competitors but they rely on fans to be there.”
For more information, visit irwindalespeedway.com.
History of Irwindale Speedway:
May 1993: Nu-Way Landfill closed and decommissioned
March 1999: Irwindale Speedway opens
2015: Plans to turn the site into a 700,000-square-foot outdoor mall approved.
December 2017: Tim Huddleston and his team save the speedway from it’s slated January 2018 closure.
2022: IDS Real Estate purchases the speedway property
Dec. 21, 2024: Irwindale hosts its “Farewell Extravaganza”