ORANGE COUNTY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY REUNION

admin — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 17:34:38 +0000

OCIR, the “Super Track”, Reunion November 23, 2013, at the NHRA Motorsports Museum, Pomona, CA Referring to the increasingly popular nostalgia events, one of the audience members said it best when he asked John Force “Is the past the future of drag racing?” As shown at the Orange County International Raceway (OCIR) Reunion, that track boasted large showings (16-32) of funny cars. The past is repeating itself 30 years later as nostalgia races like Hot Rod Reunion and March Meet attract fields of more than 32 funny cars. Ten panelists relived the glory days of the “Super Track” at the OCIR Reunion November 23 at the Wally Parks Motorsports Museum. The first panel consisted of Bill Doner, Carl Olson, Tom McEwen, Tommy Ivo, Roland Leong and Mike Jones. Bob Beck was the moderator. Bill Doner is currently the CEO of London Bridge Raceway Park which is building a motorsports park, including a drag strip, at Lake Havasu. Doner began his career as a sports writer for the Orange County Daily Pilot and later went to work for Carroll Shelby. He then started promoting drag races at Seattle International Raceway and eventually had 9 tracks, including OCIR. Before he sold off and left drag racing in 1979, he was promoting over 1,000 events a year. Doner was able to attract the big names, including McEwen, Prudhomme and Leong, and fill the stands with spectators by hosting events featuring 64 funny cars racing under the lights and creating outlandish stunts including a Linda Lovelace appearance at Seattle and fox hunt nights. Doner said he plans to open the Lake Havasu Drag Strip with 32 funny cars. Carl Olson, driver of the Kuhl and Olson top fuel car, and winner of the 1972 Winternationals, went to work for NHRA in 1976. At NHRA Olson was heavily involved in the safety of the sport. Olson raced at OCIR and was there as a spectator for the last race. Olson talked about the Sorokin Foundation created by Mike Jones after the death of Mike Sorokin at OCIR. The Sorokin Foundation was dedicated to racer safety. Tom McEwen, was at OCIR for the first and last race. McEwen was in the Guedel & Holland top fuel car at the first race of August 5, 1967. He set a track ET record of 7.02. McEwen was in a funny car at the last race and ran a 6.31 at 229 mph but didn’t make the finals. Although McEwen was the first to obtain corporate sponsorship from Mattel, he did say that he feared that the teams now were spending so much money that drag racing was going to price itself out of existence. Tommy Ivo ran the last race of his career at the Winternationals at OCIR. Ivo was injured in 1982 during a 70-stop tour in his four-engine dragster. In the 3rd race the car hit a bump in the track and the car came up when he went down and he crushed three vertebrae. Ivo turn the driving chores over to Rick Johnson for all of the last races of the tour – except the Winternationals. At the Winternationals, Ivo put a lot of pillows in the driver’s seat and made a last pass. After that pass he drove back up the track, got out of the car, and burned his driving gloves with a hand-held track dryer. Ivo also recalled a life-saving event. During a verbal altercation with a fan, Ivo said a few uncomplimentary things about Ed McCulloch. His words got back to McCulloch who stormed up to Ivo threatening to punch him. Ivo was already belted into the seat of his funny car so when McCulloch reached in to pull him out, Ivo didn’t budge. He figures that was the only time a seat belt saved his life. Ivo also found OCIR to be a superior track saying the return lane at OCIR was smoother than the tracks back east. Roland Leong, the Hawaiian, won a lot of races. In 1964 he won his first national event with Danny Ongias driving. In 1965 he won the Winternationals and U.S. Nationals in top fuel with Don Prudhomme driving and in 1966 with Mike Snively driving again won the Winternationals and the U.S. Nationals. Leong said he was at the press conference held by the Irvine Company and NHRA held the day after the Orange County Planning Commission approved the plans for OCIR on November 9, 1966. The last OCIR race was held on October 30, 1983 and Leong’s Hawaiian Punch funny car sponsored the race. Mike Jones was a member of the partnership that developed OCIR. The Irvine Co. gave them a long-term lease on property in the middle of the V where the I-405 and I-5 meet. Jones was a designer and drafstman and did the actual design work and plot plan of OCIR. Jones was committed to creating not only a state-of-the-art facility but a safe facility. The track was 4,200 feet long with a 300 foot sand trap capped with a water filled barrier. Jones noted the track had scoreboards, and the 3 story timing tower, and track lights, which set it off from its competitors. It also had good access to the I-5 freeway (and apparently only one race car ended up on the freeway). According to one member of the audience that car blew up after going through the lights, headed for the ambulance, missed that and ended up on the freeway scaring the heck out of a passing trucker. After 6+ years of managing OCIR, Jones, and some of the other partners, took a buy out but one original partner, Larry Vaughn, stayed and leased out the track with IHRA sanctioning. Jones said his job was promotion and structure of the races and he obtained track sponsorship from Champion Spark Plugs and Hang Ten. The break provided a chance for old friends to meet: […]

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OCIR Reunion – Timing Tower

ORANGE COUNTY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY REUNION