It’s a largely forgotten part of California history. In a state where the car culture is king, European style road racing was very popular in the post World War Two era. “Southern California Road Racing” is the title of a new book written by a Ventura County historian, which looks at this slice of our past
It highlights racing in the 1950’s and 60’s on closed courses, a tradition which lives on with the Long Beach Grand Prix. Tony Baker says while road racing was big in some other parts of the country, nowhere was it bigger than Southern California. The racing included familiar names like Lotus, and Ferrari, plus some more obsure names that only car buss whould know like a Devin-Panhard, or a Cooper T-39 Bobtail.
Road race events were common on the South Coast in the 50’s and 60’s, including at the Paramount Ranch, and on the grounds of Santa Barbara Airport.
Baker has written a number of articles and books about Southern California’s car culture, and has amassed his own museum of more than 4,000 images. He’s talked with some of the drivers, and car owners to collect stories about the road racing era.
While the racing days are gone, Baker says there are a number of car collectors in our region. He says it’s not uncommon to see some of these rolling pieces of history on the road along the Central and South Coasts.
Baker says he hopes the book will help highlight what’s become an almost forgotten part of Southern California’s history. The new book “Southern California Road Racing” is available at bookstores, and online starting August 12th.
