MOTOR RACING : Finding a Short-Track Site to Replace Ascot Park Might Be a Longshot

As Ascot Park begins its final season of racing with World of Outlaws sprint cars next week, the search goes on for a new site for short-track racing in Southern California.

And the pickings are slim.

Cary and Chris Agajanian, who have operated the popular and busy track in south-central Los Angeles since their father, J. C. Agajanian, died in 1984, have been scouring the landscape from Ventura to Indio in search of a place where sprint car, stock car and motorcycle racing can be continued.

So have a host of others, including Carroll Shelby, Larry Minor, Frank Arciero, Gary Sigman, the late Mickey Thompson, the National Hot Rod Assn. and David Greenwood of the long-gone Riverside International Raceway.

There are sites that have appeared to be available, such as the Prado Dam flood control area in Corona, and land parcels in or near Perris, Avondale in the Corona-Temecula corridor, Simi Valley, Lancaster-Palmdale, Adelanto, Hemet-San Jacinto, Oxnard, Diamond Bar and the Palm Springs area, but all proved illusory.

Inflated land costs, environmental objections, senior-citizen protests, changing personnel in city councils and inability to obtain needed access land were some of the reasons for failure.

“The longer we look, the more it appears to me that the future of motor racing in California may be linked to fairgrounds,” said Cary Agajanian, president of Agajanian Enterprises. “Costs and expanding real estate developments being the way they are, I don’t believe it is feasible for anyone to spend the millions of dollars necessary to construct a permanent racing facility.”

For a half-mile oval, such as Ascot, between 40 and 50 acres are needed. Ascot has 37, but for sellout events, such as the Peabody sprint car race and the Turkey Night midget Grand Prix, they’ve run out of parking.

“When you draw up plans for a track, the thing you need to remember is that as the crowds grow--which is what you’re hoping for--you need more room,” Agajanian explained.

When J. C. Agajanian signed a 15-year lease for Ascot Park in 1975, it was on a landfill, surrounded by a cemetery, a trailer park, a rock crusher and the Los Angeles River, and the land had apparently little value.

Today, with the rapid growth of industry in the area, estimates place the worth of that 37-acre parcel between $25 million and $40 million, depending on how it is developed.

“The normal return on an investment like that should be around $3 million a year, and no 9,000-seat short track could ever do that,” Agajanian said ruefully. “Essentially, race promoting is a labor of love. Nobody makes a lot of money at it.”

The Ascot property is owned by the Maxwell T. Ziegler estate. After the Agajanian lease expires on Dec. 31, the land will be developed by Howard Mann and the Andrex Corp., probably as a retail furniture outlet.

If there is a best bet for a new track site at this time, it would be the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster.

“If it comes to pass, it would not be looked on as a replacement for Ascot,” Agajanian said. “The track couldn’t be much longer than three-eighths of a mile, but it has many of the amenities you want, things like a covered grandstand and parking. But you would need to build a track, put up crashwalls and install lights. Right now it’s just a large dirt area used for rodeos.”

Approval for the project is up to the Fair Board of the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds of Los Angeles County, but there are precedents for such a facility. Fairground properties are being used for speedway motorcycle racing at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, and for motor racing promotions in Northern California.

“Motor racing is coming into favor with fairgrounds as they are losing their horse racing,” Agajanian said. “Before, it was not compatible to have motor racing and horse racing at the same site, but now the grandstands are sitting empty as one fair after another has dropped horse racing.”

Also under discussion for Lancaster--not on the fairgrounds--is a racing complex that could include a 1 1/4-mile banked oval, a drag strip and a dirt half-mile oval.

“We keep hearing that Lancaster is too far removed from most of Southern California to be desirable, but we feel the Antelope Valley can stand on its own,” Agajanian said.

Another problem cited by Agajanian is the seeming lack of interest among major manufacturers involved in racing.

“The economics in Southern California don’t make sense for one individual investor to build a racing facility,” he said. “The ones who stand to gain the most are the manufacturers who make a living off the racing industry, but I haven’t seen one person in that industry step up and ask if they can help, or offer financial or moral support.

“That has been the biggest surprise to me, and I have heard the same disappointment from others who have sought to retain some semblance of racing in the area. One by one, we’ve lost our racing heritage--first the drag strips at Lions and San Fernando Valley and Orange County, then Ontario (Motor Speedway) and Riverside (International Raceway), and now Ascot, and still there seems to be no groundswell of support.”

The last scheduled race at Ascot Park will be the 50th anniversary of the Turkey Night Grand Prix, a national championship race for United States Auto Club midgets on Thursday night, Nov. 22.

SPRINT CARS--There will be something for both non-winged and winged car enthusiasts this week at Bakersfield. The World of Outlaws will open their winged car season Friday and Saturday nights at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale. Bobby Davis Jr. is the defending champion, but nine-time series champion Steve Kinser is returning to the Outlaws after a year’s absence.

On Sunday afternoon, the wingless cars of the California Racing Assn. will perform a few miles to the southeast on the high-banked asphalt track at Mesa Marin Raceway.

After two nights at Oildale, the Outlaws will move into Ascot Park Feb. 23-24 for the fifth annual Midwinter Winged Sprint Championships.

STOCK CARS--Two 125-mile qualifying heat races today at Daytona International Speedway--with fast qualifier Ken Schrader and three-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt leading them off--will set the 42-car field for Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona Beach, Fla. Schrader and Earnhardt have the front row guaranteed, but the remainder of the field will line up according to how they finish today.

MOTOCROSS--Sunrise Valley Cycle Park in Adelanto will be the site Sunday of Round Seven in the Continental Motosport Club’s 14th annual Golden State Nationals. The series will close Feb. 25 at San Bernardino’s Glen Helen Park.

DRAG RACING--The National Hot Rod Assn., after taking two weeks to finish the Winternationals, will move its horsepower show to Firebird Raceway at Chandler, Ariz., for the Arizona Nationals this weekend. Final eliminations will be Sunday.

MOTORCYCLES--International road racer Randy Mamola will hold his second annual benefit for “Save the Children” Sunday night at the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach.