California’s Irwindale Speedway, a NASCAR-sanctioned track, has been compared to the legendary Phoenix, a mythical bird that rises from fiery ashes and symbolizes renewal and rebirth.
The state-of-the-art paved track, built on the site of a 63-acre former landfill, is located 22 miles east of Los Angeles. It consists of a half-mile oval with progressive banking that ranges from six to 12 degrees. The facility also has a third-mile inner oval with four degrees of banking and a figure-8 track.
In 2001, Irwindale Dragstrip began operating under NHRA sanction. The eighth-mile drag strip offers street-legal drag racing on Thursday nights. Many area police departments endorse Irwindale as a safe alternative to illegal street racing.
Racing at Irwindale is in its third year under the auspices of its third lessee. are Tim Huddleston, owner of High Point Distributing who serves as the facility’s president and CEO, and Bob Bruncati, owner of the Sunrise Ford dealerships in Fontana and North Hollywood.
Huddleston is a three-time Irwindale NASCAR late model champion, while Bruncati is a longtime NASCAR late model and regional touring series team owner. They stepped forward and signed a five-year lease with the property owner when the track was faced with closure for the second time in 2018.
With 6,500 permanent seats, the multi-million-dollar speedway opened on March 27, 1999, under the direction of Jim Williams, the track developer, owner and promoter. Track ownership originally consisted of several partners, including 1985 Indianapolis 500 winner Danny Sullivan. Eventually, Williams became the sole owner.
Opening night was a USAC tripleheader featuring Silver Crown machines, sprint cars and midgets with Roger Penske waving the first green flag.
In early 2012, Williams, decided Irwindale Speedway had not met his financial expectations. The company filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy and the speedway closed prior to the season.
Ownership of the facility, including the tracks, buildings and equipment, reverted to the original property owners.
The closure was reported on local TV newscasts and also received front-page coverage in both the news and sports sections of area newspapers.
No oval-track races were run in 2012 and the speedway became available for lease on an annual basis.
211 Entertainment, under the direction of Jim Cohan, became the second Irwindale Speedway lessee/promoter. Cohan and 211 Entertainment operated the drag strip in 2012 and the oval and drag strip from 2013 through 2017.
211 Entertainment provided a limited racing schedule — two Saturdays a month from March through October. That enabled racers and fans to extend their racing budgets throughout the year. 211 also created fan-popular Night of Destruction events that filled the grandstands with thrill-seeking fans of mayhem.
The original property owners sold the site to a local firm that planned to demolish the speedway and develop the property as a large outlet mall. City officials supported the plan in hopes of realizing increased sales tax revenue. However, the plan never materialized.
In mid-2017, the property owner gave 211 Entertainment a six-month notice to vacate the premises. Late in 2017, 211 Entertainment officials were offered a lease, but declined.
With the track’s future again in doubt, Huddleston and Bruncati offered to lease the track. They arranged a five-year lease and the track opened as usual in 2018. The lessee also operates the track’s late model stock car driving school — YouDriveLA.
The Huddleston-Bruncati team has continued the two-Saturday-nights-a-month policy. NASCAR oval racing is followed by a Night of Destruction two weeks later. They added late model or truck series races prior to the Night of Destruction events in an effort to develop new fans of oval-track racing.
The track hosted 18 oval- track races and 29 drag racing events in 2019. There are 23 oval and 31 drag-strip events scheduled this season.
The third track operator also developed an economical entry-level racing division — enduro cars. Four-cylinder sedans were split into stock and sport classes last year and raced on the third-mile oval for NASCAR points and separate track championships. The class grew to more than 45 competitors, who bought cars for around $500 from salvage yards and through want ads.
Click below to continue reading.