Michael Satterfield
It is an end of an era for drag racing in Southern California, like so many tracks in the Inland Empire before it, Ontario Motor Speedway, Riverside International Raceway, and Fontana Drag City, Auto Club Dragway has been permanently closed.
The announcement came via a Facebook post on December 3rd: “After careful consideration on the best direction forward for Auto Club Speedway, the difficult decision has been made to permanently close Auto Club Dragway. We thank all of the competitors, fans and corporate partners who made so many wonderful memories at Auto Club Dragway through the years, and we look forward to making new ones as we embark on our 25th Anniversary Season at the 2-mile oval in 2022.”
The closer marks the end of legal, publicly accessible, quarter-mile drag racing in Southern, California. While Pomona, home of the NHRA will still host the Winternationals, the track is not open for regular drag racing events. This announcement follows the similar news that Houston Raceway Park will be closing permanently after its final Springnationals race in April, 2022. Earlier this year it was also announced that Atlanta Dragway which has been hosting professional drag racing since 1975 had also been sold to developers.
Auto Club Dragway’s closure seems to be connected to plans to redesign Auto Club Speedway, taking it from a two-mile NASCAR oval to a half-mile short track like Martinsville or Bristol. The redevelopment will shrink the overall footprint of the property with large portions of it being redeveloped into warehouse space.
