Ontario Motor Speedway - Inaugural California 500 on Sept. 6, 1970

Описание: As strange as it may seem, I've experienced two Inaugural California 500’s in person. The first was on September 6, 1970, at the magnificent new Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, CA.

Enjoy this in-period TV show excerpt about the very special event that was intended to usher-in auto racing’s golden age in what marketers coined “The Sport of the Seventies”.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Top level racing struggled for most of the decade amid multiple wars, gas shortages and economic recessions.

The second “Inaugural” California 500 occurred 9786-days after the first, on June 22, 1997, at the beautiful new California Speedway (later known as Auto Club Speedway), located less than 6 miles East of where OMS once stood from 1970 - 1981.

Ontario Motor Speedway is where my journey inside the sport began at age 16, at the one-off Questor Grand Prix on March 28, 1971. Seven months after the (first) Inaugural California 500, I experienced life on the "other side of the fence" via forged credentials that I created for me and my high school posse.

Now, 55-years after the first California 500 at OMS, it is mind-blowing to realize that 55-years before that 1970 race, Ralph DePalma won the 1915 Indianapolis 500 in a Mercedes-Benz at an average speed of 98.580 mph, as the horror of World War 1 raged on.

I was in the OMS pit area in September 1972 when Jerry Grant broke the magic 200 mph barrier at Ontario Motor Speedway in Dan Gurney’s beautiful Eagle Offy, with a qualifying lap of 201.414 mph. This was truly meaningful because OMS was known as the "Indy of the West”, having been built as a modern replica of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s iconic oval.

Ontario Motor Speedway’s final season was in 1980, just as Pfanner Communications began our first year in business. With a heavy heart, I witnessed the track's demolition in November 1981.