This is so cool for a nearly 60 year old lady. I found a video of the old Ontario Motor Speedway while on was on the "court" of Miss Ontario Motor Speedway. At minute 7:48 of the video I am leaning in as the winner A.J.Foyt enters the winners circle. My hair is short, but I am standing to the right of Marilee Taylor and to my right is a gentleman in a checked shirt and it looks like a large rodeo belt buckle. What a trip it was 1975 and I wa18. A few seconds later Judy Stallings, the Queen is presenting the winner's plaque.
The pole speed was 2.5 mph faster than the pole at Indy. Shav Glick, who covered motorsports for the Los Angeles Times, told me that Ontario was so far ahead of its time that even int he 2000s it would have been one of the best facilities in the country. I would loved to have seen it.
I got to see the 1973 running at Ontario. Wally Dallenbach won that day. AJ Foyt hit the wall on the back straight and Al Unser, leading, lost his turbo with just a few laps left. We had pit stand seats. What an amazing day that was.
nope... too big of a track... it would have fallen victim to the mile and half cookie-cutter "D" shaped tracks that dominated in the 1990's. If it was built in 1988, would have been gone by 2000.
By the look of attendance at Fontana, most Californians are too preoccupied with "reality" nonsense, "influencers", and unsocial media to bother attending an auto race.
@@brikshoe6259 Be honest and look at the facts please... It's not like Fontana was known for advertising its races right... If people are not aware ahead of a race weekend that there will be an INDYCAR race held, they will not show up. You are just describing maybe 1 percent of all the issues the Californian races have. I mean, they reintroduced the Triple Crown, and if you weren't paying attention to Indy to begin with, you wouldn't even know the Cali 500 was held. At least Pocono did "something".
thank you for this! i use to go to every race they had at Ontario. i had the opportunity to sit anywhere i wanted most years so i have been on the infield grass and some races in the suites for the 500. it was great hanging around the garage area too. i'm going to see if i can't find more OMS race coverage on the net or on DVD. i miss those days and that place!
Johnny Rutherford's Gatorade car is one of my all-time favorites. It's a shame that Rutherford, or Foyt for that matter, didn't get all 500 miles to fight for an Indy win that year.
AJ would had won the Triple Crown that year three years before Big Al accomplished the feat if it wasn't for him waving around Bobby Unser around after he passed Super Tex coming out of the pits at Indy, as AJ also won the Pocono 500 as well.
Actually, the opposite happened. It was Bobby who waved Foyt by him just before the rain hit because he had passed A.J. just after leaving the pits in turn one under the caution originally caused by Gary Bettenhausen's right rear suspension came off. What probably cost Foyt a chance of winning at Indy was him running out of fuel just prior to Tom Sneva's crash, because that cost him the lap that he lost by.
3 minutes and 5 Seconds into the video they show aerial view of the back straightaway you can see all the grape Vineyards there that used to be all Wine Country grape Vineyards
Piss poor management and was a super local political volleyball. Jimmy Carter had killed the economy and Reagan hadn't fixed it all yet. Why have investment money just sitting there when you could make a whole lot more money with Carter's lingering interest rates and precious metals potentially going crazy again. I think there was also a /misinformation/scare campaign by the Chevron Company that wanted to buy the property targeting investors. Crazy financial times back then. It was 3 million to tear it down. I think Chevron paid 10 million or less for the bonds. The property value was well over 100 million at that time. I wish that Parnelli Jones and Vel Miletich had done their homework and had made a stronger buy effort a few years earlier. My parent's security company had the security contract and wow was it very, very busy place even outside of racing. There is no way it could have been losing money without somebody/group stealing boatloads.
I Eduardo Torres Javier Narvaez, would be more than a thousand grand helping hand to #Re-restart this magnificent #CA #CALIFORNIA #CALIF500 In the county of Los Angeles!
This is so cool for a nearly 60 year old lady. I found a video of the old Ontario Motor Speedway while on was on the "court" of Miss Ontario Motor Speedway. At minute 7:48 of the video I am leaning in as the winner A.J.Foyt enters the winners circle. My hair is short, but I am standing to the right of Marilee Taylor and to my right is a gentleman in a checked shirt and it looks like a large rodeo belt buckle. What a trip it was 1975 and I wa18. A few seconds later Judy Stallings, the Queen is presenting the winner's plaque.
The guy in the checked shirt is Jim Gilmore the owner of Foyts car!
The pole speed was 2.5 mph faster than the pole at Indy. Shav Glick, who covered motorsports for the Los Angeles Times, told me that Ontario was so far ahead of its time that even int he 2000s it would have been one of the best facilities in the country. I would loved to have seen it.
I got to see the 1973 running at Ontario. Wally Dallenbach won that day. AJ Foyt hit the wall on the back straight and Al Unser, leading, lost his turbo with just a few laps left. We had pit stand seats. What an amazing day that was.
Thanks for sharing the footage, such a shame to see such a great race track disappear and now there is absolutely no trace of its existence.
My brother and I were here.along with our so called step father.What a moment in Time.Men were Men.Corporate dictation didn't rule.
If Ontario Motor Speedway was built in 1988 instead of 1968 it would still be around today. It was simply 20 years ahead of its time.
nope... too big of a track... it would have fallen victim to the mile and half cookie-cutter "D" shaped tracks that dominated in the 1990's. If it was built in 1988, would have been gone by 2000.
By the look of attendance at Fontana, most Californians are too preoccupied with "reality" nonsense, "influencers", and unsocial media to bother attending an auto race.
@@brikshoe6259 Be honest and look at the facts please... It's not like Fontana was known for advertising its races right...
If people are not aware ahead of a race weekend that there will be an INDYCAR race held, they will not show up.
You are just describing maybe 1 percent of all the issues the Californian races have.
I mean, they reintroduced the Triple Crown, and if you weren't paying attention to Indy to begin with, you wouldn't even know the Cali 500 was held. At least Pocono did "something".
If this track was opened in 1988 it would have been reconfigured by the early 2000’s. We all saw how homestead Miami speedway turned out!
Again. More proof to why AJ Foyt go down in history as the best race car driver to have ever driven a race car. He is and always be the best ever!
While being a Foyt fan, I'd have to add Mario Andretti
thank you for this! i use to go to every race they had at Ontario. i had the opportunity to sit anywhere i wanted most years so i have been on the infield grass and some races in the suites for the 500. it was great hanging around the garage area too. i'm going to see if i can't find more OMS race coverage on the net or on DVD. i miss those days and that place!
I was there in the stands that day.
Trailsurfer Damn you must be 100 or something
Johnny Rutherford's Gatorade car is one of my all-time favorites. It's a shame that Rutherford, or Foyt for that matter, didn't get all 500 miles to fight for an Indy win that year.
AJ would had won the Triple Crown that year three years before Big Al accomplished the feat if it wasn't for him waving around Bobby Unser around after he passed Super Tex coming out of the pits at Indy, as AJ also won the Pocono 500 as well.
Actually, the opposite happened. It was Bobby who waved Foyt by him just before the rain hit because he had passed A.J. just after leaving the pits in turn one under the caution originally caused by Gary Bettenhausen's right rear suspension came off. What probably cost Foyt a chance of winning at Indy was him running out of fuel just prior to Tom Sneva's crash, because that cost him the lap that he lost by.
Do you have the ARCA Vulcan 200 at Talladega that aired before the Cal 500 in this episode?
How many seats were there? I remember it being a copy of Indianapolis.
150,000
Thanks.
Straightaway for straightaway turn for turn it was exactly like Indianapolis not sure on the seating though
3 minutes and 5 Seconds into the video they show aerial view of the back straightaway you can see all the grape Vineyards there that used to be all Wine Country grape Vineyards
how did this place lose money ? I mean in 1979/1980 what made them sell it for $3 Million dollars.
Simple. People quit showing up.
Piss poor management and was a super local political volleyball. Jimmy Carter had killed the economy and Reagan hadn't fixed it all yet. Why have investment money just sitting there when you could make a whole lot more money with Carter's lingering interest rates and precious metals potentially going crazy again. I think there was also a /misinformation/scare campaign by the Chevron Company that wanted to buy the property targeting investors. Crazy financial times back then.
It was 3 million to tear it down. I think Chevron paid 10 million or less for the bonds. The property value was well over 100 million at that time. I wish that Parnelli Jones and Vel Miletich had done their homework and had made a stronger buy effort a few years earlier.
My parent's security company had the security contract and wow was it very, very busy place even outside of racing. There is no way it could have been losing money without somebody/group stealing boatloads.
@@cakraft24 actually people were complaining too much noise public nuisance
I Eduardo Torres Javier Narvaez, would be more than a thousand grand helping hand to #Re-restart this magnificent #CA #CALIFORNIA #CALIF500
In the county of Los Angeles!
🏎💥