It’s official: The iconic Irwindale Speedway will close at the end of this year. The facility opened to much fanfare in 1999 as a state-of-the-art motorsports complex within the metropolitan area of Los Angeles.
Irwindale Speedway often operated seven days a week. It not only offered oval-track racing, but also drifting and drag racing, and served as a backdrop to many movies, TV series and commercials, and other community events.
For the past seven years, Irwindale Speedway & Event Center Inc., leased the facility. That group was led by president Tim Huddleston; his wife, Lisa; and their partners Bob and Maureen Bruncati. They have been notified that their lease will not be renewed.
“The landlords elected to move forward in developing the property for industrial use,” Huddleston said. “We were profitable. We ran the speedway nonstop. This is the worst day ever. I can hardly get through it.”
Realizing that the property Irwindale Speedway sits on might be repurposed, Huddleston prepared. Last year, he partnered with Kevin Harvick to purchase what is now called Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway in Bakersfield, California.
“There will never be another racetrack built in Southern California — never,” said Huddleston. “The land is just too valuable. Now, we’ll all be hauling up to Kern Raceway [two-plus hours north] or to All American Speedway in Roseville, six to seven hours north.”
Huddleston promotes both venues, taking over the lease of All American Speedway this year.
“There is a silver lining to the story,” Huddleston said. “We’re not quitting — we’re digging in. We’ll still have the races that were at Irwindale Speedway, just at our other tracks.”
The final race for Irwindale Speedway — the Farewell Extravaganza — takes place on December 21. It will feature oval-track racing, figure 8 racing, trailer racing, and drifting, with the ARCA Menards Series West headlining the event.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
