The Beverly Hills Speedway and Our Fast Past

Ladies and gentlemen, how do you feel about today's traffic in Beverly Hills? Too impacted and slow for you? There was a time when cars moved fast in our city—on the Beverly Hills Speedway. 

BH began to develop more quickly in the late teens when Director Thomas Ince moved here and attracted others from the entertainment industry—really from the film industry. The building of the exciting and popular Beverly Hills "Speedway" began in 1919 to bring some action and visitors to our city, and interest them in living here.

The speedway was located where many residents of the Beverly Hills Southwest Homeowners Association live, in an area once called Beverly Drive West. It was "bordered" by the future Lasky and South Beverly drives, with Wilshire Boulevard to the north and Country Club Drive to the south. (Country Club Drive was later renamed Olympic Boulevard by the City of Los Angeles just before the 1934 L.A. Olympics.) The entry to the track, just off of Wilshire Boulevard, was called Speedway. It was eventually reconfigured and renamed El Camino. 

Acting industry investors known as "The Beverly Hills Speedway Syndicate" purchased land for the project from a bean farmer for $1,000 an acre. The wood-board track was built on 275 acres. At a cost of $500,000, it was completed and ready for inauguration on Feb. 28, 1920. Photographs show a track that had to support heavy cars, a 70,000-seat grandstand and timing towers. Some race enthusiasts watched from the interior field.

From 1920-24, the speedway was home to racing automobiles, like the famous Model T, and motorcycles that circled the 60-degree banked track. Some historic experts even say that small airplanes landed on the track. 

At the time, the wooden racetrack was ranked second in race quality only to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You can see from the accompanying photos the excitement our speedway generated. Many race cars had paint jobs that read Durant Racing on the sides. Durant was an American race car driver, the son of William C. Durant, a founder of General Motors who was also the co-owner and president of the Beverly Hills Speedway.

Helloooo, Durant, as in Durant Drive.   

A few other close-up photos have been posted here. The exciting and popular speedway lasted only about four years because it was made from timber, which caused race cars to ignite many fires on the track. The developers of the speedway would later move the racetrack to Culver City, just south of MGM studios. 

Former resident Paul D. still has the original 1926 electric permit from his parents' house, which was located at 313 Speedway, the original street name for El Camino. Wow!
  
Roger M., a ‎60-year resident in the speedway's former neighborhood, watched several houses and swimming pools get dug. The first piece of the old speedway he saw unearthed was the size of a VW bug. 

Marc J., who lived at 232 El Camino, said that when the Goren family excavated for a pool around 1963 behind their house on South Rodeo, workers found a brick-lined, boarded-over well near the alley wall. It was more than 25-feet deep, as he recalls. The bottom was full of oil and car parts. Marc's guess is that this was near the eastern edge of the track property and used as an oil/trash dump. The residents filled it with excavation dirt and paved the pool deck over it. 

Carol T. once found a solid cement pad when her family was rehabilitating their yard. Again, a part of the speedway.

This writer once lived on the 300 block of El Camino. The only historic oddity discovered in my house was my peach-colored corduroy leisure suit from the late 70s. OMG!
  
Thank you for reading this history of our beloved city. Russ   

p.s. Check out the two links below!

In 1920, Gaston Chevrolet was killed at the BH Speedway during a 250 mile race. Born in France in 1892, he was the younger brother of Louis Chevrolet, who in 1911 co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Company. 

Watch how motorcycles took to the BH Speedway, as shown in a film from 1921.