Race Fans Sing Auld Lang Syne : Motorsports: The Turkey Night Grand Prix checkered flag is the last that will wave at Ascot.

For 30 years, Thanksgiving dinner for the Agajanian family has ended with the senior member pushing his chair away from the table and saying, “Let’s go to the races.”

That has meant Ascot Park and the Turkey Night Grand Prix.

It was the same this year--and yet it was different.

Cary Agajanian, eldest son of the late J.C., who started the Ascot tradition in 1960, made the call last Thursday and his mother, Faye, and his brothers, Jay and Chris, and their families made their pilgrimage to the little track on the edge of Gardena for the United States Auto Club national championship midget race. It was Faye’s first trip back since her husband died seven years ago.

It was the last one they will make. The Agajanians’ lease on Ascot Park is up Dec. 31 and the new leasee plans to raze the 37-acre facility to make way for industrial development.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” Cary Agajanian said. “It’s wonderful to see all these people here tonight and realize what Ascot has meant to them, but it’s sad for me and my family because this has been our life. I started coming here with my dad when I was 16, and Jay and Chris started as soon as they were old enough to tag along.

“I don’t know how people feel when a business shuts down, like the Herald Examiner last year, but it must leave an empty feeling. I think this is worse for us because it’s not only been a business, but it’s been almost like home. I’m about spent emotionally. This is the third ‘last night at Ascot’ for me, and each one gets harder to take.”

Motorcycles, once the staple at Ascot, had their farewell Sept. 29 when a record standing-room-only crowd of 11,032 watched Ronnie Jones of Oklahoma City win a Grand National half-mile championship race. Last Saturday night, it was sprint cars--the centerpiece of Ascot’s programing for the last 15 years--that had their last outing when 8,224 came and watched Ron Shuman of Tempe, Ariz., win the Don Peabody Classic.

Then came the grand finale Thanksgiving night when 8,468 fans made it the second-largest auto race in the track’s 33 years. Only the World of Outlaws’ winged sprint car appearance in 1985 was larger: 8,844.

Instead of Turkey Night Grand Prix, it could better have been called the Friday Morning Farewell. There were a record 107 midget cars on hand, so many that the 100-lap main event did not start until 11:40 p.m. and did not end until 12:20 Friday morning.

Stan Fox, a veteran Indy 500 driver from Janesville, Wis., led the final 50 laps and beat P.J. Jones, Parnelli Jones’ son from Rolling Hills, to the checkered flag. Jones had led the first 50 laps after beating Fox to the first turn in a battle of front-row cars. Fox earlier had set a track record of 93.018 m.p.h. during qualifying.

The 107 cars was the largest number for any USAC championship event, according to Dick Jordan, a USAC official on hand.

“Everyone wanted to have their car here for the last night at Ascot,” Jordan said. “We had cars and drivers from 13 states.”

Ten of the drivers, including 57-year-old Mel Kenyon, came from Indiana, the hotbed of midget racing. It was Kenyon’s 25th trip West for the Thanksgiving night race. He won in 1963 and again in 1975 when Agajanian had to move the race to Speedway 605 in Irwindale because Ascot was closed temporarily.

“I’ve always enjoyed coming here to race, and I’ve never seen a crowd like this one,” Kenyon said. “It’s just great to see. It’s too bad it’s for the last race. And the great competition is more than I’ve ever seen, too. I’m just sorry I can’t be a part of the last race.”

Kenyon failed to make the 30-car main event after qualifying 44th and being unable to finish better than seventh in the 15-lap last-chance semifinal. He wasn’t the only one. Chuck Gurney, the two-time defending champion, and Sleepy Tripp, the five-time USAC Western States champion, also missed the main event.

So did Tom D’Eath, who is better known as the driver of the Miss Budweiser unlimited hydroplane, but who races midgets during the off-season.

The parking lots were filling up by 4 p.m. Thursday, two hours before qualifying and four hours before the first race was scheduled. Because of the huge field, it did not start until 9:15.

The longest lines were at the concession stands, where fans were buying all sorts of memorabilia--race jackets, shirts, sweaters, caps, posters, patches, pins, anything with the Ascot logo on it.

For $20, you could get a jar of sticky dirt from the Ascot track, complete with a Certificate of Authenticity and a roster of noted drivers who raced there--from A.J. Foyt to Rick Mears to Johnny Rutherford to Steve Kinser to Bob Hogle to Ron Shuman to Parnelli Jones to P.J. and Page Jones.

Judy Jones, P.J. and Page’s mother, bought a block of 35 seats for the Jones Fan Club and very nearly saw her 21-year-old son, P.J., join his father as a Turkey Night winner.

“This is one of the finest dirt tracks in the country, if not the finest,” Parnelli Jones said in accepting his place in the Midget Racing Hall of Fame. “I’m still hoping something might happen to the developer, and we could continue racing here. I’m not giving up hope until the place is cleared.”

The long wait for the 100-lap finale was worth it. After P.J. Jones horsepowered his way into the lead at the start, Fox pressured him with all the experience at his command. Just as the halfway flag was being displayed, Fox slipped past Jones and took over the lead for good. But Jones held off Robbie Flock and Brent Kaeding to finish second.

For the thrill seekers, there were 11 cars that flipped during the long night. Two got upside down during warmups.

It was the fourth victory for Fox at Ascot, but his first in the Turkey Night Grand Prix. It was also his fourth USAC victory this season. He is the 16th Indy 500 driver to win on Thanksgiving, but the first since Bubby Jones in 1976. Fox has been in three Indy races, finishing seventh in 1987.

For car owner Steve Lewis of Laguna Beach, it was his first Turkey Night prize in 13 tries.

In the USAC championship points, both leader Jeff Gordon of Pittsboro, Ind., and challenger Mike Streicher of Findlay, Ohio, failed to finish in the main event. This left Gordon with an almost insurmountable lead of 35 points going into tonight’s final race at Imperial Raceway in El Centro. Gordon, 19, will become USAC’s youngest midget champion merely by starting the main event.

One group of fans brought a huge banner that read, “Good Bye Ascot. We will Miss You.” National Speed Sport News, a national racing publication, flew in a special Ascot edition from Ridgewood, N.J., for the occasion.

“This is a national happening for racing,” said Wally Pankratz, a veteran racer from Orange who has been coming to Ascot for 25 years. Pankratz was the first one out of the main event when his engine let go.

After the race was over, fans seemed reluctant to leave. Some were still milling around at 3 a.m. And, as long as there were people there, the rumors continued to circulate that Ascot might rise again and sputter along as Riverside International Raceway did for a while after it officially closed.

“I know people think we’re kidding about closing, but we’re definitely not (kidding),” Cary Agajanian said. “Riverside was a different situation. There, the track was controlled by the man who owned the property. Here, we have no control of the property. It was owned by the Zeiglers, and they have leased it, starting Jan. 1, to Howard Mann.

“I have talked with him weekly, and he has asked if we could move our stuff out early so that his company (Andrex Development) could get going with their plans for the property. That doesn’t sound like we’re staying now, does it?”

Agajanian did say, however, that his family intends to stay in racing, one way or another.

“The family will be doing race promotions, but at the moment we don’t know where or when,” he said. “We own the rights to a number of events, like the Turkey Night race, several World of Outlaws shows and the motorcycle Grand Nationals.

“We would like to find a facility to replace Ascot, but that seems remote at the moment. Failing that, we will promote races on a one-at-a-time basis, the way our dad did when he started out.”

The long night ended with the playing of Auld Lang Syne. As the crowd joined in the singing, a teary-eyed woman turned to her husband and said, “Where are we going to go Saturday nights?”

And where are the Agajanians going next Thanksgiving night?