Sacramento Raceway Park

Vastine ‘Ves’ Smith built the strip in 1964, laying the original asphalt and building the timing tower and two sets of grandstands that held about fifty people. On September 18, 1965, Ed Gonzales of San Leandro won top fuel at 8.84 and 179 mph in his injected Chevy dragster. A two-day NHRA divisional points meet on May 21-22, 1966 drew 300 competitors. Smith ran the track for a few years and in 1967 turned management over to Betty Clark, who renamed it Eldorado Raceway after the nearby El Dorado Hills, with Kerry Clark as strip manager. In late 1967 Western Oil Development bought the 198-acre site, brought back the name Sacramento Raceway and spent $50,000 on upgrades. When it couldn’t make the track pay, it looked for someone who would lease the property and keep it a racetrack. Dave Smith and his family leased it in early 1968, ran it as Sacramento National Raceway that season and went back to Sacramento Raceway in 1969. They ran it under NHRA sanction and bought the whole complex in 1971. In 2017 the Smiths began talking with Sacramento County about closing the track. After several years of back and forth, the decision to close came in 2023. The final Governor’s Cup race that September went well, and the track closed soon after.