Saying Goodbye to L.A.'s Last Drag Racing Strip

For many drivers at the drag strip in Irwindale, California, it was those tiny toy cars they had as kids that got them hooked on racing. Steve Osoinio says it was just something that has always been part of his life.

“I’ve been into cars since I was little,” he explains. “I always had a fantasy of going fast. My dad had muscle cars growing up.”

Osoinio offers to let me ride shotgun as he goes down the track for the first time. He’s nervous, he says, and so am I. The crew working on the track waves us forward, and Osoinio inches up to the starting line. All eyes are on the lights, known as the "Christmas tree.” The lights turn and Osoinio floors the pedal.

The whole thing takes just a matter of seconds, but Angelenos have been queuing up to burn rubber on this San Gabriel Valley strip since 2001.

Every Thursday, drivers line up to race, filling the air with the smell of burning rubber. But the track’s days are numbered. Los Angeles County’s last drag strip looks set to close after the Irwindale City Council recently approved plans to demolish the one-eighth mile track, along with an oval track used for NASCAR racing, to make way for a new shopping mall.

The track’s closure will mark the end of an era for in the region where drag racing really took off. The National Hot Rod Association was founded in California in 1951 and still has its headquarters just a few miles from Irwindale. At its peak in 1960 there were four drag strips running in L.A. County.

“This is where it started,” says Bob Beck, the drag strip’s announcer. "This is the area that the enthusiasts and the visionaries came from.”

Beck has spent most of his life involved in the racing world. He even takes his work home with him,  hosting race nights on a slot car track he’s built in an upstairs room of his home. In fact, there isn’t a room in his home that doesn’t house some memorabilia from California’s racing history.

I meet Vicky Jochimsen and Leslie Saenz waiting in line to race. They’re sitting in a bright red 2013 Mustang GT with “She Devil” emblazoned on the side. They’re about to race an almost identical model car. Jochimsen’s car is a little newer, “so that’s my advantage” she laughs.

Jochimsen and Saenz say they’re determined to get as much mileage as they can out of the track, but they still can’t believe it’s closing. Jochimsen says she came to the track because she had too many speeding tickets on the road, and if the track closes down “it would just suck for us.”

Also waiting in line is Stan Chersky. He’s brought his blue ’55 Chevy to the track. Like many here, he says he’s concerned that if the track closes, more people will take part in illegal street racing. Chersky remembers the groundbreaking ceremony at Irwindale back in 2000.

“Everyone was excited that they finally got another drag strip in L.A.,” he recalls.

As more cars line up to race, Bob Beck watches from the announcers’ box. The track will be open for racing until at least the end of 2015. Beck says he’s worked at other tracks in the area that have since closed down.

In his house he still has his jacket from the L.A. County Raceway, where he worked for 20 years. Now it's a gravel pit. Other tracks in the area have made way for parking lots, housing developments or storage yards.

When Irwindale closes, Beck says, "It’s going to leave a big hole in my life.”