CAPITAL SPEEDWAY - SACRAMENTO CA
Known originally as Capital Stadium, later Capital Speedway, and finally West Capital Raceway, the track continued a Sacramento racing tradition that began at Lazy "J" Raceway and Hughes Stadium. It was open from 1947 to 1980. With its national reputation, it attracted some of the country's best short track racers as one of the most well known dirt tracks. It was a 1/4 mile bull-ring; it was a whirlpool of horsepower as short track racers in jalopies and specially-built, high-horsepower machines, flew around the oval chasing the checkered flag in close, wheel to wheel action. It was a "tacky" place with clay as sticky as Mississippi mud to harness the fast, "hook-em up" action. For fans, the facing was up close and their lap, sometimes with dirt in their beer. Fans would watch their friends and
neighbors, "weekend warriors", pit their high speed driving skills against one another on a track that required precision and left little room for error. Crewmen in starched white pants tended to fender-less "jalopy" coupes and mighty midgets cars in the beginning. Super-modified sprint cars, stock cars and motorcycles followed. Sometimes in special, multi-day events when the track was temporarily expanded to a half mile. The NASCAR Cup Series made one stop at the facility; it came in 1957. The track used was the 1/2 mile extended version. Poor record keeping left us with little info on this race. But what we do know is that Art Watts started on the pole, and Clyde Palmer was second. Bill Amick would line up third and go on to claim the win. West coast star driver Lloyd Dane finished second one lap behind; while George Seeger, Scotty Cain and Danny Graves made up the top five. The track went on to play a monumental role in developing a heritage of winning open-wheel drivers and helped foster the growth of auto racing in Northern California. The track usually featured super-modifieds on Saturday nights and open-competition races for Northern Auto Racing Club [NARC] sprint cars and Bay Cities Racing Association [BCRA] midgets. Located just off Interstate 80 in West Sacramento, the track’s location is now home to a trucking terminal. A monument, erected in 2003, stands as a small testament to the roar of racing engines that once inhabited the location.
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