I am looking for info on the speedway when it was still a dirt track. My father David Thompson, Uncle Benny Weisieger, Mike Hueslin, and Aunt Laura all raced back in the day. If you have any info, pics or articals could you please post. I have some artical and pics I will try to find them and upload them. i was so young when they raced most of my memories are in the old stories and pics. I would love to add to these memeories if you have any thing to add. My dad David was #99 and I think my aunt was 69, one of my uncles was67 I think.
Wow,...thank you all. Just reading through all your messages and going through the pictures, I guess I really didn'y know how much I really missed the track. Many long nights working with Jimmy Gamboa, Bob Wickey, Scott Holmberg and Ron Esau,...thanks for the great times guys. Keep the memories close to your heart! I know I will.
Wow its feels like it was just last month we were all running that last 150 lap enduro at cajon speedway. I started 59 and finished 6th. I miss it out there in california. Cajon had its problems but it was a family place to be on saturday night. Cajonspeedway brought thousands of people from far as hundreds of miles to wach and race there. it was a place you all felt safe. you could let your kids run around in the grandstand area with out having to wach them every minute because every one else would wach them for you. If I was a multi millionare I would rebuild cajon speedway today!! I might make it just a little longer but I would make it as close as possible to the original track. If you know any millionares call them,tell them, you cant take your millions with you when you die so why not rebuild a community hot spot!! CAJON SPEEDWAY 2!!!!!!!!! Rally the troops & rebuild our racing family!!! contact me at Tc.enterprises@hotmail.com
So many memories. I started going to El Cajon Speedway in 1987 and attended almost every Saturday race until 1997 when I moved to Connecticut. I was so heartbroken to hear that Cajon Speedway was closing. I got to meet a lot of people over the years. I would love to go back to those days. I have thought about all the memories that were created at Cajon Speedway. I remember Borneman, Gay, Hale & Johnson. Today I work at ESPN and I am about to go meet Jimmy Johnson. It was definitely a GOOD TIME @ CAJON SPEEWAY.
Watched races since before I can remember. Went to Balboa Stadium until Cajon was paved. Mostly into the Friday night Modifieds that often were rained out, leaving the Saturday night stockers dry. Watched the quarter midgets in their little bull ring from atop the west grandstands. Then, Sprint cars from Ascot Speedway would bolt on roll cages and race the Super Modified class. (and you always wondered where the sprint cars got the cage from). Great stuff, with names like Billy Vukovich and Bobby Hogle! Dad crewed for the #96 Dick Zimmerman machine and sometimes the outlaw #44 Don Thomas. Another of Dad's friends, a notable Stocker, Ed Hale, used to tear things up in the '60s/'70s. I was thrilled to see him in a Mini-Stock in the '90s. Just can hardly believe its all gone.
So many memories so little space. I'm the brother Steve was talking about. Our older brother Larry would take us to Cajon Speedway often. He always said the same thing as we walked to the ticket booth and the sound of qualifying was going on. "they're playing my song". Being transplants from Alabama racing is a favorite sport in our family. Wherever we lived in this country we always managed to find a short track to go to. 88 Speedway in Wichita. Huntsville Speedway in Huntsville, Al. Speedway 117 in Chula Vista. And then there was the "fastest 3/8 mile paved oval in the west" Cajon Speedway. (the only 3/8 mile paved oval in the west but I'm not telling.) Great memories there. Incredible racing. Good folks to watch them with. The food. OH the food. The nachos and corn dogs still rank at or near the top for me. I'm back in Alabama now. Huntsville area. If any of you folks are out this way email me. We still have the sweet smell of racing fuel and rubber here. http://www.huntsvillespeedway.com/
I didn't know Cajon Speedway was gone until I found this website. I was searching the web looking for memories about Ascot park and then wanted to see what was happening at Cajon speedway. Most of my memories are about Ascot, but we did visit Cajon Speedway a few times. Some of the greatest racing I ever saw was at Cajon Speedway. Just a crying shame that these great race tracks have to keep closing down in the name of progress, so, so sad!!
I just went to San Diego for a visit after having moved to Phoenix 10 years ago. I brought my children with me for a nostalgic look back at their mom's younger days. Over the years, I have told them many stories of my days working on race cars and what a great time those 8 years were for me. When we turned the corner and saw NOTHING--I cried & 2 days later I still weep. I hadn't heard that one of the best things about my youth and a place where most of my best and worst memories were formed is now gone. Thanks for the memories! To Steve Brucker and Ed Hale (and anyone else I raced with that is now gone) Thanks for the best time in my life!!
For years, weekend after weekend my wife and I would take our five children to the races. We'd sit in the front row of the West stands and cheer on Dennis Woolridge and John Borneman. One weekend my daughter's favorite driver, John Borneman, was in an accident and his car caught fire. From then on, every main event my daughter would cry in fear he would catch fire again but get hurt. This went on for almost a month. My favorite memory was when we took her to see John. There were a long line to see him as there was every weekend. When we finally reached him, we expained how she would cry every main event and why she would cry. John took time out from his fans, placed my daughter in his car and explained all the safety features and how they would save him from getting hurt. That really impressed me and my daughter never shed another tear. Thank you John and all the other drivers over the years who entertained us each and every weekend.
I was raised about a mile from the El Cajon Speedway. I remember as a child on saturday nights listening to the cars, was a great way to fall asleep. As I grew, Friends and I would gather in a pack and walk to the speedway. NOw rememeber this was in late 60's early 70's. There are so many stories I could tell about at the El Cajon Speedway. I now live in South Carolina and about 7 miles away from a drag strip which has races on Thrusday nights. I am heart broken to know that one of my childhood places is gone. Monique
Being a serviceman going to school in Miramar, I spent many a Saturday night watching racing at Cajon Speedway. It saddens me when the real estate underneath a track is more important to some people than the racing was. I will miss this track, along with many other tracks all over this nation that have secumbed to the same fate. Beware, it could happen to any track you may be going to now. Support any and all efforts to keep what is a truly unique American pastime (short track racing) from becoming a distant memory in your neighborhood.
I took my 5 year old son to the track on opening day in 1991. It became a weekly event for us for the next several years.Those are special memories for me and something that he will never forget. As a young boy I attended races at Norwood Arena Speedway in Massachusetts. The track closed in 1972. Three years ago I started a web site dedicated to the memory of that place and it's people. Before time passes and memories fade someone needs to launch a historic web site on the track.
My brother back in the early 80's would take me and my brother to cajon all the time. It is sad to see it has fallen. The pictures of the concession stand area brings back memorys of corn dogs with mustard. My brother past away a day after Cajon speedway shut down last year. When I saw the date it was ironic. He loved Cajon. He retired from the Navy in 1992 and moved to Alabama. He always compaired every racing experience he had with his times at Cajon. I am sad to to hear it is gone. It has great memories for me as well. Steve
Please wait...