Ascot Park

My mom's family were migrant workers who lived in Gardena, California.  They worked the fields a stone's throw away from Ascot Park. That was another era - the 1950s Gardena.  Beaches, farms, and motor sports!  One of my cousins grew up to be a motorcycle rider and the head mechanic for Penske.  Myself, I was into bikes. 

Our series in February 2020 isn't hearts and valentines - its a tribute to the things that get your heart racing: fast bikes! And its a tribute to Ascot Park and the 1950's hand-painted art style of the day. As electric bikes get faster, springier, and maybe bigger, it is fitting to remember the roots: bloody dirt-track racing under lights in Old Gardena.

Evel Knievel made his first nationally televised jump at Ascot. The track was also infamous for the toll it took over the years. Among the most notable riders who passed away from crashes at Ascot are Ted Boody, who hit the wall coming out of turn four on the final lap of the national there in May of 1988; Peoria TT winner Jimmy Phillips died from a crash he had there in 1958. And then there were the lesser known racers who passed away like Steve Polson (1980), Dewayne Keeter and Tom Warren (1975), Elbert Turner (1974), Ivan Shigemasa (1973), Ted Longwith (1972), Pat Gosch (1971), Marshall Becker (1969), Steve Pederson and Don McAlear (1968), Clemmie “Stonewall” Jackson and Karl Kirschenman (1965), Bob Skibsted (1964) and Thomas Campbell (1961). Not to mention the sad and bizarre story of Travis Petton, who in 1967, crashed at Ascot and then died when the ambulance he was being transported in was involved in a head-on collision.

Experts say the tackiness of the racing surface, which made for great multi-line racing and spectacular lean angles, was the very thing that made the track so lethal. Instead of a normal low-side flat track crash, riders often got sideways, then caught traction and were flung over the high side into the unforgiving barriers that lined the outside of the oval.

 

“Ascot is the toughest track in the country to come in and race against the local riders,” Carroll Resweber, a four-time AMA Grand National Champion, who never could win a national race at Ascot, told Shav Glick. From 1959, when Tanner won the first national half-mile on a Triumph, until 1976, no non-California rider won against the Ascot regulars on the half-mile. In part, it was the incredible traction helped by sea air rolling into the area keeping the track surface just moist enough that it became super tacky and that gave the advantage to the West Coast riders who had ridden there and knew how to set up for that traction. It was Jay Springsteen who broke the California rider stranglehold on the Half-Mile National in 1976.

 The Ascot track was built in 1957 on a former dump site and was known originally as L.A. Speedway. When new owners took it over a year later, the track was renamed Ascot Park, in honor of the historic old Legion Ascot track that had burned down in Alhambra in 1934. It was J.C. Agajanian who brought big-time racing to Ascot Park. “Aggie” formed Agajanian Enterprises with his sons, Cary, J.C. Jr. and Chris, and Ben Foote, longtime publicist and vice president. Starting in 1976 the company inked a 15-year lease on the Speedway. As the Los Angeles are exploded in growth in the 1980s, the property became too valuable. It was the same fate that many of Southern California’s racing venues met. So, before the September 1990 AMA Grand National race it was announced that it would be the final motorcycle racing event at Ascot. 

 A standing room only crowd of over 11,000 showed up for the farewell national. Factory Harley rider Chris Carr was fastest in time trails and won the pole for the national with the fastest Heat race of the night. Scott Parker led the race early, but on the second lap Ronnie Jones put the Garvis Honda RS750 into the lead and simply pulled away to win the national. Carr was second, Parker third. Unfortunately, Jones never got the satisfaction of seeing the checkered flag. Will Davis crashed hard coming onto the front straight with just a few laps remaining and the race was called complete. Still Jones was pumped to take the win, his second at the track. On the podium Jones was joined by Sammy Tanner.

“Growing up I’d always heard about Ascot,” Jones said. “It wasn’t just a famous track in California, it was famous all across the country. So, when I won the last race there it was really special. They say that last national had the biggest attendance ever in the history of the track – cars or bikes. I loved racing there so much, that I was hoping against hope that they would somehow find a way to save the track. It just didn’t make sense to me that place with so much history and support was going away. It was sad in that respect.   

 

 

“It was great that Sammy (Tanner) was there that night to be on the podium with me. I was at the Trailblazer’s Banquet this year. Sammy was there. Gene Romero came up to us and called us the Ascot bookends, since Sammy won the first national there and I won the last. Looking back now I’m happy I got to be a part of the track’s history.”

 

Credit: Larry Lawrence, https://www.cyclenews.com/2019/06/article/archives-the-last-ascot/