The race against time

Though no trace remains today, some of America’s most spectacular racetracks were in the L.A. Basin in the first decades of the 20th century. At the corner of Beverly Drive and Wilshire Boulevard — an area where today no car goes fast — was the most majestic, the Los Angeles Speedway, a 1.25-mile board track with 35-degree banked corners. There were bullring dirt tracks, B-shaped road courses and smooth drag strips. And there was mayhem. While there was a public outcry about deaths, it was soaring land values that put L.A.’s racetracks out of business. The last one, Ascot Park at Vermont Avenue and 182nd Street, closed in 1990.