San Fernando Drag Strip/Raceway

Known as ‘The Pond,’ this strip was built in 1955 along the northwest side of the runway at San Fernando Airport, which dated to about 1939. It ran southwest to northeast near today’s Arroyo Street and opened after a nine-month push by San Fernando Valley hot rodders. The San Fernando Airport Development Company owned it and built it for $70,000, with builder and developer Fritz B. Burns leading the project. It had 3,200 feet of paved straightaway plus an oiled and graded shutoff area. Frank Huszar, president of the Throttle Merchants car club of Tarzana, managed the strip, and the Valley Timing Federation sponsored it.

A dress rehearsal on August 7, 1955 drew 900 people to watch 150 vehicles. At the grand opening a week later, on August 14, the track was fenced and had a paved pit area, and 2,000 spectators saw Cal Rice win top eliminator and set the track record at 139.75 mph. A then-record 5,000 people came on September 25, 1955. Races ran weekly, and in 1956 the parking area was doubled, entrances widened and seating added.

On March 2, 1958, Mickey Brown of Venice set a world record of 152.28 mph in his A/GD in front of 3,000 people, then beat it two weeks later at 157.61 mph. Ronnie Hier of Palmdale won the California Drag Championships on June 22, 1958 before a record 5,000 people and 328 entries, running 10.8 seconds at 141.06 mph in his injected dragster. Tommy Ivo ran his best ever in his 420-cubic-inch Buick dragster on November 30, 1958, 9.52 seconds at 147.78 mph. On December 21, 1958, tennis pro Pancho Gonzales went 151.51 mph in his blown Cadillac car, the second-fastest speed at the strip that year. Ivo set a world speed record for unblown gas dragsters at 154.36 mph on February 15, 1959 and the world ET mark at 9.21 a week later. Joe Mailliard set a gas dragster ET world record of 9.03 on May 10, 1959. Harold Nicholson, 35, brother of ‘Dyno’ Don Nicholson, was killed on November 22, 1959 when his right front wheel came loose at the finish line and his car rolled several times. Don Prudhomme set a track record of 161.57 mph on December 27, 1959. Bob Brissette had the valley’s top time on October 9, 1960 at 169.81 mph and 9.48 seconds in his twin-engined Chevy dragster, and Ivo pushed the track speed record to 174.09 mph on January 1, 1961. Kenny Safford, in the Safford-Gaide-Ratican A/FD, was the first to top 190 mph here, at 190.26 mph.

One old-timer remembered it opening around 1956 next to the airport. He said the shutoff ran under the Foothill Boulevard bridge and several drivers died hitting the bridge abutment, and that manager Harry Hibler was one of the good ones, who’d slip you a few dollars if he knew you were broke. Drag racing journalist Dave Wallace, Jr. said open headers were allowed from 12:30 to 3:30 PM and that the sudden closing had nothing to do with noise. Builders of nearby I-210 made a deal with owners Fritz Burns and Bill Hannon to dump excavated dirt on the sloping site and level it, which doubled the property’s value overnight. The site, north of Dronfield Avenue and Aviation Place, is now densely built up with no trace of the strip, though Wallace said the stocker pits and the bottom end were never developed and are home to a Saturday swap meet that started before the strip closed.