The fact that Paso Robles has become a destination resort location with wine at its focal point, doesn’t mean it should rest on its laurels. The Golden State is where drag racing was born, yet there are very few drag strips left. You can count on one hand how many quarter-mile tracks are left in Southern and Central California. Famoso, near Bakersfelid is the loan representative in the Central part the of the state. The region could use another drag strip and Paso Robles could use another reason to come attract new and unique visitors. The answer?
In a state where drag racing was born due in part to dry lakes racing and the regions fervent support and love of the automobile, there seemed to be a quarter-mile drag strip in every corner of California. Starting with the innocuous Goleta, there may have been nearly 100 drag strip facilities dotted throughout the state from Fremont to Fontana and Saugus to Santa Ana (pictured).
Population up, drag racing down
However, with the onslaught of population and the crush of urban development – along with noise activists – tracks disappeared. Everywhere you looked, there were abandoned strips that sometimes sat vacant for decades afterwards. Famed tracks like Orange County eventually became a plot of commercial highrises while Irwindale turned into a brewery and Lions, well, sadly it’s just a storage yard.
In a century of growth, the greater Los Angeles area in Southern California went from roughly 200,000…
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