Willow Springs Race Course
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Willow Springs Dragway
- Drag races ran on the straightaway of the oldest permanent road course in the U.S.
- Raced
- 1954, 1963
- State
- California
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- First race
- late 1954
- Location
- Just west of Rosamond
- People
- Merced Racing Association, operator (1954)
- Elevation
- 2,468 ft (752 m)
- Coordinates
- 34.87437, -118.26452
The Merced Racing Association ran drag races on a long straightaway at this desert road course just west of Rosamond. Willow Springs is the oldest permanent road course in the United States, with racing there starting in late 1953. In late 1954 drag races ran every Sunday. Nothing about drag racing there turns up again until 1963, though it probably went on. On December 15, 1963, Willow Springs Dragway held the Antelope Valley championship drags, with a $500 purse for stock cars and competition cars. Top eliminator was limited to C, D and E dragsters, modified coupes and roadsters.
Background
Willow Springs sits near Rosamond, about 80 miles north of Los Angeles. Its 2.5-mile road course still uses the layout from the first race in November 1953, and it hosted NASCAR Grand National races in 1956 and 1957.
More in California
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