Vaca Valley Raceway Today

Website visitor Dann Shively flew over Vaca Valley Raceway near Vacaville, California recently.  He took the aerial photos below.  Dann also sent the track diagram scanned from a 1964 program.
  

  
 
It never occurred to your webmaster that this track still existed.  He'd long assumed that it was bulldozed and subdivided, like Riverside, into tract houses or a mall.   Dann said that the track was "pretty much deteriorated".  I wonder how bad it it could be?  Asphalt is relatively cheap.  Consider the cost of creating an entirely new race venue somewhere else compared to acquiring and repaving this historic course.
  
  
 
Your webmaster took photos at the August 19-20, 1961 Vaca Valley Raceway event.  Surprisingly, considering the area and season, it rained on Saturday.  He remembers Sunday was a more typical summer day -- HOT!   Here are links to pages on the website with photos taken that weekend. 

Jerry Grant:  Top photo shows Grant on the main straight near Start/Finish.  The spectator area along the  straight was on a raised bank that provided a view of 100% of the course.  There were grandstands here, too.  The second photo shows Grant sliding off the course at Turn 2 during Saturday's wet event.

Ed Leslie:   These photos show Leslie on the starting grid at Start/Finish. 

Dave MacDonald:  This photo was taken farther along the main straight near Turn 1.

Lew Florence:  Florence in Rod Carveth's Ferrari Testa Rossa near Start/Finish.
 
 

New!!!    (5-31-12)    Andrew Watry's Photos

Andrew explores the remains of the old Raceway.
 
 
Memories of Vaca Valley Raceway

My brother, Tip McPartland, raced motorcycles at Vaca Valley Raceway.
 
Next:   Vaca Valley Raceway Today -- 2

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