Ventura Raceway

Ventura raceway is a 1/5th mile oval at the Ventura county fairgrounds. Except during winter, most Saturdays they have a variety of dirt track racing events.

View from the stands:

From the stands you also get a good view of the pit area, and the beach immediately beyond:

After the national anthem, racing begins. The heat races and the main events for the various classes are interspersed throughout the evening.

These these are “Dwarf Cars.” They are quite small, and are constructed (I’m informed) of one-inch diameter steel tube frames. They all have bodies made to replicate the look of 1930’s cars, and are powered by motorcycle engines (around 80 horsepower in some of the classes). There are also classes with smaller engines for young drivers. These cars are very quick, with great acceleration. Lots of fun to watch. (Especially the main events, where there may be more than a dozen of these on the track.)

There are also classes of go-karts. These aren’t kids’ toys. They’re fast and manuverable, and notice the lack of roll cages. This is one of the less expensive ways to get into racing.

And when you’re done racing, you put it up on a cart and push it back to the pits.

Often various gokarts (and even dwarf cars) are offered for sale immediately after a race. The ultimate impulse purchase. See you on the track next week…

Sprint Cars are designed for short dirt tracks. Like most dirttrack vehicles, these are intended to skid around the turns. They would be more dangerous if they achieved traction (and the track is periodically wet down during the event to keep it muddy and slipery). It’s more like snowmobiling or skiing than ordinary driving. In many of the pictures you’ll see the front wheels of the cars “crossed up” as they take the turns in this skidding manner.

As the track announcer said, Sprint Cars are made to do two things- go fast and turn left. They need to be push-started by tow trucks equiped with special front bumpers. Notice the odd rear bumpers designed for the push-start. Other classes of Sprint Cars have a large wing attached to the top of the car, for increased downforce on the wheels. The winged cars aren’t usually raced at Ventura Raceway.

Another low-cost way to race is in the Hobby Stock class. These are stock cars with only limited modifications permitted. (They seem to be mostly old Cameros and Monte Carlos). There are even classs below this (for small sport/compact cars).

Finally, there’s the thunderous roar of the “Modifieds.” These are big V-8 powered behemoths. They may have started life as a street-legal car, but they’ve been modified (hence the name) beyond recognition. They’re not as nimble as the sprint cars, and there’s a lot of bumping and shoving during a race. It’s pretty common to see parts of these come off on the track, due to car-to-car contact.

Here they are, coming out of the pits in a cloud of dust, about to enter the track.

If you want to get closer to the cars, you can buy a pit pass, but there’s a also good view of the pit area through the fence. Notice the trash barrel in the first picture compared to the size of the dwarf cars.

A noisy ultra-light airplane happened to fly overhead as these pictures were taken. The sound of the engine drew everyone’s attention skyward.

A brooding sunset ended the day.