Irwindale Speedway, one of the last remaining drag strips in SoCal may be dead. The facility is most well known for the 6,500 seat circle track that was formerly sanctioned by NASCAR and has long been recognized as one of the finest asphalt short tracks in the country. Some reports have the track as being dismantled and shut down for good while other information points to a management change and reorganization of the business. Yet other sources seem to believe that the people who actually own the lease (which are not the people who were operating the track) to the land are going to sell the property. We have had conversations with a couple of people who claim to have direct knowledge of what is happening and even their stories conflict.
The track was sponsored by Toyota up until this year, when the company opted out of their 10 year deal at the only time they could according to the contract, leaving the facility without a title sponsor and presumably very short on operating cash. Outside of the actual racing action at Irwindale, there is a ton of film work and other “side” income the track earns. One of the people we spoke to claims that there is a bundle of that type of work booked all the way through 2012, so the facility has some positive cash flow. The track is very famous in the drifting world and is really one of the places that the sport of drifting actually got a toehold in the United States. Yearly, the place is blown out with people for the Formula Drift Championship event.
We’re going to continue to follow this situation and the track is supposed to make an official statement tomorrow regarding the future of the place. We’ll follow up with that as soon as possible.
Until then, here is a link form the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin regarding the facility.
