REDWOOD ACRES SPEEDWAY - EUREKA CA
The facility opened in 1947 and is still in operation today. Known as "The Acres", Redwood Acres Raceway has also been known as Redwood Speedway, Redwood Acres Speedway, Redwood Acres Fairgrounds and Eureka Speedway. The track started out as a .375 mile dirt oval but was reconfigured in 1956 and 1957 to accommodate the NASCAR Cup Series. Originally it was a track featuring Midgets, Roadsters and Hard Tops, which specialized in door banging racing with the brakes removed to reduce drag and end-over-end flips commonplace. With no walls except for the main straight, it was typical to see a car go off the track in turn two disappearing in a cloud of dust, only to rejoin the action in turn three. Just outside the regular 3/8
track was the 5/8 “Big Track” which had motorcycles and stock cars racing on it. NASCAR visited the track for two races. The first was in 1958. Many of the east coast Cup stars made the long haul across the country to run 200 laps around the 1/2 mile track. Thirty cars started the race, with Speedy Thompson getting the pole and he led 40 laps in the race . Junior Johnson, Eddie Pagan and Buck Baker all also took turns at the front. Johnson and Pagan waged a great battle late in the race as Johnson was able to hold off Pagan by just ten car lengths. Baker was third, followed by Lee Petty and Thompson. In the only other race here, Lee Petty would jump to the lead and dominate the race, leading the first 188 laps. Then with just 12 laps
to go, then car broke an axel, and Petty was done for the day. Johnson was there to assume the lead and go on to get the win. Speedy Thompson was second; four laps in arrears. The rest of the top five was Tom Pistone, Tommy Irwin and Buzz Woodward. Petty finished sixth. Throughout the 60s and 70s the local classes were variations of Super Stock, Hobby/Street Stock, and Jalopy, as well as the various visiting series like
Midget and Sprint Cars and occasional stunt shows and destruction derbys. Nightly car counts upwards of 100 filled the hectic dirt infield. The speedway went from its original dirt configuration to its current asphalt configuration in 1987. Redwood Acres Raceway hosted the NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model/Winston West series in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1989 and 1990 as well as the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour from 1988-1993. Rich and Linda Olson have promoted the track since 1988. Current
divisions include mini stocks, real stocks, limited street stocks, roadrunners, Thunder Roadsters and sportsman late models. There has not been a season where racing hasn't been active at the track since it has opened.
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