Hourglass Field (San Diego)

When the Paradise Mesa strip closed in 1959, San Diego racers moved to an old Navy airfield near Miramar Naval Air Station. The Navy didn’t approve of the unsanctioned racing but did little to stop it until an accident on the field injured four people on August 6, 1960. Then it shut down all drag racing. Car clubs asked government officials to help find a place to race and got little sympathy. Racers organized a mass protest at 1 a.m. on Sunday, August 21, 1960, blocking ten blocks of El Cajon Boulevard and drag racing while thousands watched. Police brought in reinforcements and ordered the crowd to disperse at about 2 a.m. When it didn’t, they fired tear gas and moved in with riot sticks, and one officer called it a hell of a mess. More than 100 people were arrested, and a tense couple of days followed with sympathizers taunting police on the streets. City officials promised to study the problem, but it was a couple of years before San Diego County had another drag strip. The old field is gone, replaced by Miramar College and Hourglass Field Community Park.