Los Angeles County Raceway

Los Angeles County Raceway (or "LACR") was a motorsport facility in Southern California. LACR's main feature was its 1/4 mile dragstrip, which was first opened in 1964. LACR held its final event on July 29th, 2007. The land under the track is owned by Granite Construction, Inc.

General Information

Los Angeles County Raceway was an NHRA sanctioned quarter-mile drag strip located near East Avenue T and 70th street east in Palmdale, California. “LACR” was home to many racing organizations such as SCEDA, NMRA, DHRA, ANRA, and practically every NHRA racing category. “LACR” was home to the annual Hangover Nationals, Fox Hunt, Rat Fink Party, and Toys For Tots. LACR was open every Wednesday and Friday night to any racer ranging from dragsters to street cars. LACR held its final race on the last weekend of July, 2007, due to Granite Construction’s ability to overtake the land they had leased to the raceway to use for mining.

Closing of LACR

LACR closed its doors forever on July 29, 2007. This was the end of an era in Drag Racing history. After 43 years the mining company next door "Granite Construction", who owned the mineral rights to the property that was leased to LACR, shut down LACR in order for mining. Within 3 months of LACR closing its doors, every building on the property had been demolished, more than half the parking lot was mined, and no pavement remained.

LACR in Popular Culture

* Los Angeles County Raceway has been seen in numerous movies and television shows. Recent Hollywood movies featuring LACR include "The Fast and the Furious" and "Ocean's Eleven.
* The Mariah Carey music video "Loverboy" was filmed at LACR.
* Mass media corporation, Primedia, has many of its automotive magazines based out of their Los Angeles branch. Because of LACR's closeness to Los Angeles, many of these publications use Los Angeles County Raceway to perform comparison tests and to record performance data. Some of the Magazines that frequent LACR include: Hot Rod Magazine; Four Wheeler, Sport Truck, Turbo, Car Craft Magazine; Chevy High Performance; 5.0 Mustang Magazine; Mustang Monthly Magazine; Motorcyclist Magazine (ALL of their 1/4 mile data recorded at LACR). Although separate from Primedia, Car and Driver magazine also stages many of its comparison tests at Los Angeles County Raceway (acceleration data) as well as neighboring Willow Springs Raceway (handling data).
* [http://www.lacr.net/filmtv.html LACR's list] of films, videos, television shows, and magazines that use Los Angeles County Raceway.

See also

*LACR picture gallery

References

External links

* [http://www.lacr.net LACR.net- Los Angeles County Raceway's Official Website]
* [http://savelacr.org SaveLACR.org] -LACR's past, present, and future.