Unknown Racetrack ?

Along with the many 35MM negatives I rediscovered a couple of years ago,that I have slowly been addingto Racer's Reunion, I also discovered a treasure trove of my father's World War II photos. Those I also have scanned and they are being posted to the appropriate web sites which cover the history of the war. However, I have ONE shot that may be of interest to the racing community, and in fact, I am looking for information on exactly what and where this is.

I believe it is a race track. This scan is of a contact print taken with a K-20 aerial camera mounted in the belly of a B-29. I do believethe location is state side - probably in California. My Dad's unit trained in Fresno and around the San Francisco area.The photo timeframe is 1944, a year.

As I enlarge this I thought it was a horse racing track, but there is obviously banking in the turns. From the scale of the buildings the track is at least a mile and a half long. Another reason to think it is a horse track is the rather fancy grandstand buildings in the foreground. The mystery deepens - other photos show what appears to be a marshalling yard or depot with tons of equipment staged for shipping.

I am hoping the Racers Reunion crowd may be able to help in the identification of this facility. One theory I have is that this WAS a horse track and the government took it over and reconfigured the track surface some to make, maybe, a proving ground or test track. (Just a wild theory).

Anyway, can anyone ID this place ? Do you think it was ever a race track ? Any help is certainly appreciated. Thanks

Steve Struve

updated by @steve-struve: 12/05/16 04:08:38PM

If this was a race track, it was either located on the coast or on the shore of San Francisco Bay. There's the former Bay Meadows Raceway in San Mateo, that's near the bay, but not as close as this photo. Bay Meadows was originally a 1-mile hose track, but NASCAR ran there in the '50's with Tim Flock/Kiehaefer winning.There have been several tracks around Fresno, but there's no body of water in the Fresno area as depicted here. One, for example, "Blackstone Bowl" was banked 38 degrees but was only 5/8 mile. Interesting, I'll keep looking too.

I spent a couple of hours last night looking at the California Coast in Google Earth, trying to get a match. I even slanted the view and changed the direction more westernly looking, to try and simulate the coastline configuration. Had three or four fairly close matches to the costal terrain, but no positive identification. I do believe this is west - central California and above. Down south, the land is more sandy and the trees are much different- if there are any trees at all ! Also, all of the aerial photographs in my dad's album were either along the west coast or bombed out factory buildings in Japan. I'll keep looking. Thanks. Steve

LOl...Steve I did the same thing. I think I looked for at least 2 hours...and found some cool stuff, but no direct match. I thought I had found it...similar shape, but after a close review it definitely wasn't as close to the shoreline as this mystery track. But I enjoyed the trip. I expect there'll be another soon.

Steve Struve said:

I spent a couple of hours last night looking at the California Coast in Google Earth, trying to get a match. I even slanted the view and changed the direction more westernly looking, to try and simulate the coastline configuration. Had three or four fairly close matches to the costal terrain, but no positive identification. I do believe this is west - central California and above. Down south, the land is more sandy and the trees are much different- if there are any trees at all ! Also, all of the aerial photographs in my dad's album were either along the west coast or bombed out factory buildings in Japan. I'll keep looking. Thanks. Steve

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There appears to be ships/landing craft just offshore, a military operation. The background peninsula looks to have a vertical cliff, similar to the English channel

wow talk about a trip i took one hunting this track---it is sooooo easy to get sidetracked ,you would see something and there you go off in a new direction, if its west coast i cant find it Bobby is the "goat" to hunt that down

There was a high banked 1 mile track built in 1931 called Oakland Speedway. They ran races into the 50's, but I don't think this was it. I think the banking in 3 and 4 was progressive to about 60 degrees from what I've read.

Pete,

What about Michigan, could the body of water be Lake Michigan, and the track some type of Detroit-based test track?

Pete Banchoff said:

There was a high banked 1 mile track built in 1931 called Oakland Speedway. They ran races into the 50's, but I don't think this was it. I think the banking in 3 and 4 was progressive to about 60 degrees from what I've read.

I'll do some checking Bopper. It looks to me like a test track because it's a really odd shape. I wondered about the old Packard Proving Grounds in Grosse Pointe (I think) but I'm not sure about the water and that test track was a perfect oval. There is a Air Force base nearby, I'll keep looking.

On the Michigan theory:


Gross Point at Jefferson+Connors
built in 1893; later site of Hudson automobile factory, then homes, Grosse Pointe Blue Ribbon Track
aka: Detroit Driving Club
1 mi. dirt oval r10/10/1901-15 defunct
(1901 [Henry Ford])*****


**** www.autoracingrecords.com

Bobby, this is the Packard proving grounds I was thinking of. It's in Shelby Twp. which is no where near water. The Grosse Pointe Driving Club was near water, but was built over about 1905. I've got some old Hudson Motor Car books I'll check those. I don't think Steve's track is in Michigan, but I still want to check.