Eff you, shopping mall, Irwindale will live on. The track, which was supposed to run it’s last ever event at the end of January before being leveled down and turned into yet another shrine to in-person money harvesting, will in fact be living once again. On December 28th, 2017, a group called Group of Motorsports Enthusiasts, led by a racer named Tim Huddleston and backed by Huddleston’s Justice Brothers distributorship, has signed a new lease that will give Irwindale two more seasons of activities at minimum.

Prior to this deal, Team 211 Entertainment had held year-to-year leases for Irwindale, but last July land owner Irwindale Outlet Partners LLC had informed Team 211 Enterprises and their parent company, Irwindale Events Center, that they would not renew the lease. In November, Irwindale Outlet Partners came back to Team 211 to see if they would renew another lease, but Jim Cohan, the CEO of Team 211 and Irwindale Events Center, refused to renew, having already been in discussions with Huddleston. What happened to the mall plan? There’s rumors aplenty…there was no “anchor store” for the mall to even come to life, or that the soil tests came back with problems (Irwindale was built on a former landfill.)

Tim Huddleston has three Irwindale Late Model Championships under his belt, and his son, Trevor, has three as well. With drag racing, NASCAR events, RallyCross, and of course being the roots for a paying drifting event in the United States, Irwindale holds a strong connection to the automotive racing scene. And, of course, California doesn’t need to lose yet another racetrack. Two seasons isn’t long, but for now, there’s another racetrack open in California. Time to go support it before it does get torn up and leveled for something else!

Courtesy: Los Angeles Daily News