DATELINE:02/14/08

FONTANA Drag City Yesterday and Today

I spent about a month painting a “Pure Hell” piece, featuring the car making its debut in So Cal at Fontana International Dragway…I became engrossed in doing the painting, getting lost in all the details and remembering those great days when I was back in High School…I would take my Grandpa’s 63 Plymouth Valiant to the track, unhook the muffler, and pay $5 to run the car down the track. I think I got it up to 65 mph, I don’t know what the time was, the tracks clocks didn’t run that long, lol…maybe a cool 23 seconds or something like that…

As I was doing the painting, I thought it would be neat to go out and find the same place today as the painting portrays and see what’s there…

I went to Google earth and looked a satellite images of the area and low and behold, there is one remaining section of the shutdown area left. The shutdown area at Fontana ran under some big power lines, and that area is owned by G.E. I suppose, and the space under the towers remains unincorporated.

I hoped in my car on a very very windy Valentines Day and headed to Foothill Blvd Fontana. After some searching and walking a ways I found the track. It’s still there nestled between a housing track and a row of Apartments. Looking now like a forgotten piece of asphalt from another time, just lying in a field like a long lost relic…I sat there for a while, trying to remember how things use to look, and how progress has completely removed this historic place…Only that one little piece of asphalt refuses to give up it’s place in history…I took a few pictures, but it was difficult because the wind was blowing 40 to 50 mph, just like the old days…

I studied the satellite image, and traced the track back to where the starting line would have been…After driving through the now new neighborhoods, I got to the area where the starting line was, and was surprised to see a little Park at that spot…The Park is right in the middle of a circle of Condos, and I took some pics of the area…The one pic of me with my arms outstretched, is the place right on the starting line, against the little white backstop that you can see in my painting

My next endeavor will be to go to the Fontana Chamber of Commerce, and see if maybe we can get the Park named for the Drag Strip. That would be a fitting tribute to a track that meant so much to so many of us...Stay tuned for the rest of the story….DCP