Western Railroad Discussion > Lions drag strip / ICTF

Tonight on Channel 2 KCBS there is talk about Lions may reopen. I did a Google search and found nothing. The news report will be on CH2 at 11:00 tonight.

Lions drag strip was converted into the SP's ICTF in Carson 35 years ago or so.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/14 22:56 by czuleget.

That's the one in Long Beach, CA, right?

wjpyper Wrote:
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> That's the one in Long Beach, CA, right?


Yes, Bill. It is actually in Carson, across Alameda Blvd from Dolores yard.


V

SLOCONDR

Just South of the 405, ran there years ago, great place, absolute
POS to figure out on jetting!!

Out

When the "rare" air rolled in after dark, the track was always faster. The denser sea level air always made my car faster there.

-Fred-

This is gonna date me but I remember the night Dick Landy set a record at Long Beach by turning an awseome 10:50 in his Dodge!

How far we have come.

Cheers,
Jack

I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one. Lions disappeared along with all the rest of the drag strips and the agri industry in SoCal for the same reason; property value vs. utilization. Only the new track at Fontana and the track at Pomona are in operation in this day and age because they occupy a relatively small portion of huge parking lots of other venues and are not stand-alone facilities. And even they would probably not exist if the operators hadn't been able to cut deals with the neighbors; a sound wall at Fontana and a two-event annual schedule at Pomona.

Thankfully we still have Famoso raceway in Bakersfield.

-Fred-

There's more to the California Speedway story than many know. Most of the asphalt is a huge environmental cap covering the former steel mill property. The property wouldn't be suitable for many uses without a huge environmental clean-up.