Oxnard Air Force Base (Camarillo)

Military use of the Oxnard Airport, today’s Camarillo Airport, ended in 1970, and Ventura County took back control. People had been trying for several years to bring organized drag racing to the area, and the county allowed a race on the tarmac on Sunday, July 11, 1971. The Ventura County Drags, sponsored by the Ventura County Timing Association, drew far more than anyone planned for. There were seats for 3,000, but 15,000 people got in and about 5,000 more were turned away, causing huge traffic jams and complaints. More than 450 cars entered. Gary Glenn won top fuel in the Schutz & Glenn AA/FD at 6.72 and 205 mph, and Dave Beebe won funny car.

A second race, this time with NHRA sanction, ran on Sunday, January 9, 1972, even though a windstorm had badly damaged the airport a few days before. Charlie Gartman managed the track. On a chilly day 8,000 people watched 425 racers. Ken Veney won funny car in his Vega and Don Enriquez took combo eliminator at 7.37 and 196.9 mph. Four more race days were approved for Sundays in February and March. For Sunday, April 23, 1972, the Timing Association added bleachers for 8,000 and offered a bigger purse to the California Pro Fuel Circuit, drawing more than thirty AA fuel dragsters, among them James Warren, Carl Olson, Walt Rhoades, Randy Allison, Jeb Allen, Dwight Salisbury and Bill Tidwell.

The last race was on June 4, 1972. The association’s lease ran out, and the city of Camarillo and the General Services Administration wouldn’t renew it. The racers kept pushing. In November 1972, upset that officials seemed uninterested, association members blocked the street outside Camarillo city hall with their cars, and police broke up the protest. It didn’t help their case, and it appears to have ended any chance of racing there, as the racers themselves knew.