arena | the history

Ahead of its time
The track before the arena

By JOE BLACKSTOCK

THE DAY they started building Ontario Motor Speedway, it was pure Hollywood — with a touch of Indy thrown in.

Auto racing, a sport best known then more for dirt tracks and good ol' boys, came to California to celebrate the construction of the biggest auto-racing track west of the Brickyard.

The day ground was broken in a field just off the San Bernardino Freeway — land on which the new Citizens Business Bank Arena has been built — there were plenty of beautiful people from racing and Hollywood.

In September 1968, a ground-breaking ceremony attracted more than a thousand people, including auto racing legends Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, Jackie Stewart and Rodger Ward.

Actor Kirk Douglas, himself an investor in the $25.5 million speedway, was among the screen stars who appeared at the ceremony.

Douglas' only qualifications for participating in racing: "I have received two citations from the Los Angeles Police Department for speeding." Dan Lufkin, chairman of the speedway, after receiving the key to the city from Mayor Howard J.

Snider, said the event was "a great day for racing, a great day for the city of Ontario and a great day for San Bernardino County."

Two years later — Labor Day 1970 — the inaugural California 500 was held, with Jim McElreath winning the $110,000 prize, defeating past Indy winners Andretti, Al and Bobby Unser and A.J.

Foyt. The race for open-wheel Indy cars was by all standards a success, as was a parade in Ontario highlighting the pre-race events.

Traffic proved a real problem that first year as parking lots, surrounding streets and freeway off-ramps were overwhelmed — causing headaches for visitors and police alike.

Things got better in 1971, when 750 to 1,000 buses were put to use getting spectators to the track.

Before that 1971 race, there was a brief bit of controversy when Greg Morris, a star of TV's "Mission: Impossible," failed to show up to be grand marshal of the pre-race parade. It turned out no one had made arrangements to pick him up from a Claremont hotel.

After a newspaper article explained his frustration and anger over the slight, more than 100 Ontario residents wrote letters to him apologizing for the error. Morris later told the city all was forgiven.

From a racing point of view, OMS was a success during its short lifetime.

The Unser brothers won six of the 11 California 500s, including the last five.

Foyt, the 1975 champion, earlier won the first NASCAR race at the track in 1971.

The greatest crowds, however, came from entertainment events held at the speedway. The most notable was on April 6, 1974, when an estimated 200,000 rock fans assembled for Cal Jam.

Lee Kingman's pit crew works on his car during a race at Ontario Motor Speedway on March 9, 1975.

The 12-hour outdoor rock festival drew such headliners as Earth, Wind & Fire, Black Sabbath, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Rare Earth, and the Eagles, with guest Jackson Browne, and provided a boon to the organizers who made $2 million.

A year earlier, the raceway was the scene of concerts by the Grateful Dead, Leon Russell, and Loggins and Messina.

Before a NASCAR race on Feb. 28, 1971, daredevil Evel Knievel broke his own record by successfully jumping 19 Dodge cars with his motorcycle.

But finances were a different thing. OMS frequently had problems as rent payments were missed and crowds began to decline.

Finally, the end came in October 1980 when the OMS board sold the speedway to Chevron Land and Development Co.

just a month before the last NASCAR race, won by Benny Parsons.

In July 1981, almost 11 years after the first checkered flag, the demolition of the grandstand began, clearing the way for current developments. The new Arena, as best we can guess, is about at the end of the back straightaway of the speedway.

"It was a place ahead of its time — too ahead of its time," wrote David Caraviello of NASCAR.com in 2007. "Too lavish and too heavily leveraged, the racing palace that was Ontario became a financial disaster."