Sunday, July 8, 2007

The Santa Monica Road Races

Santa Monica may come across as bourgeois, but it had its wild times in the early 20th Century, with Hearst and Marion Davies' lavish parties at their beach estate, the pier chartering boats to offshore casinos, and later on Dogtown's skateboarders -- to name just a few.
It has all disappeared, which is why tidbits from the city's history are always a treat. Harold Osmer and Phil Harm's book Real Road Racing - The Santa Monica Road Races is one of them:
In 1909, Santa Monica became home to road racing in the West, as part of local officials' efforts to turn "a sleepy resort town into the Mecca for pre-1920 auto racing enthusiasts."
The original circuit was an 8.4-mile dirt road which ran from Ocean Avenue to the Veteran Center, up through what is now Wilshire boulevard, and down through San Vincente. It made for eerie moments, with close calls and the first year's winner reaching a speed of 64 mph. Auto racing was extremely popular at the time, and the first contest attracted a crowd of 50,000.

Despite bickerings with the powerful East Coast-based AAA, the race gained momentum and international recognition in the ensuing years, even hosting the Vanderbuilt Cup and American Grand Prix in 1914.

The last race took place in 1919 and marked the end of wide open, real road racing, as enclosed speedways took over across the country. As Kevin Roderick explains in his book Wilshire boulevard, officials were keen to formalize the Santa Monica races, so they moved them to Beverly Hills, where the Los Angeles Speedway was built:

"Investors saw the speedway as a way to tap the wallets of passionate racing fans. Huge crowds had poured into Santa Monica to watch the road races for free, but moving the competition onto a track meant that fans could be tagged eight to ten dollars for box seats [...] The opening race in 1920 was won with an average speed of 103.2 mph."

Much faster than the original 64 mph, but the real wild fun was over.
modified photos via Real Road Racing - middle: Looking for Mabel