Page 13 - osmer_saugusspeedwayscrapbook

Saugus Speedway Scrapbook

A Brief History of
SAUGUS SPEEDWAY

short radius, narrow turns and is completely flat, featuring Modifieds, Sportsman, or Street Stock
[ ed: This story has appeared in various forms over many years.
making it a 'one-groove' track. It is the only asphalt charging down the straights and powering into the
It is shown here in vintage 1982 form.]
track for stock cars in the Los Angeles area of 10 flat and challenging turns.
inclair Buckstaff, writing about "The
S million auto-oriented people, so anyone who The roar of powerful engines and the squeal
Perfect Race" in the March 1981 issue of wants to race a stock car on pavement comes to of rubber fighting for traction, however, was not
Stock Car Racing magazine, states that Saugus."
the original sound heard there. Initially, it was the
"Saugus Speedway might very well be the most Every Saturday night, from April through clash of man versus animal that echoed within the
difficult track at which to win a race in the United October, the short-track stock car racing fans of completely enclosed arena seating 12,000
States. Physically, it has long, narrow straights, very Southern California converge on the fastest, flattest spectators.
third-mile oval in the country. This is Saugus From rodeos to racing, horses to horsepower,
Saugus Speedway Swap Meet, 1988. Swapping Speedway, the "Super Track." this is the story of Saugus Speedway.
began in 1963 and helped create a community Three divisions per night provide racing buffs Roy Baker, brother of shoe
center for Santa Clarita area residents. No doubt
that the racing activites fed the Swap Meet, and with nearly four hours of stock car racing thrills magnate C.H. Baker, built the
vice versa. stadium in 1924, continuing the
tradition of rodeo action
there. A legend tells of
Mexican rodeos featuring
the "Correr El Gallo," or
Chicken Pull. A rooster
would be buried up to his
neck in the sand as a
gaudily clad caballero
spurred his mount into a
full gallop, then snatching the bird from the
ground ... hopefully.
Baker, caught up in the Great Depression, sold
the stadium to cowboy actor "Hoot" Gibson in
1930. Gibson drew the Hollywood crowd and used
it as a movie set and leased it to other companies
making films. But rodeos were still the main event
which attracted Western Movie stars such as Harry
Carey, Tom Mix, William S. Hart, and John Wayne.
Today, doing a TV or film "shoot" at Saugus
is quite common. Because of its location near

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