Hanford Speedway – Hanford California

Part three of the rich history of the first superspeedway west of the Mississippi

From the debut of automobile racing with jalopy races in May 1951 through 1962, racing events on Marchbanks Stadium’s paved ½-mile, oiled dirt 1/3-mile and 1-3/8-mile high paved tracks had been promoted by the track builder and owner Bircha Lewis “B.L”. Marchbanks.

The racing facility southeast of Hanford California was managed during the 1963 season by Bakersfield boxing promoter Ed York’s Racing Associates Inc. then in late June 1964 it was announced that race driver “Caveman” Bob Christie and his partner Tommy Francis had signed a lease with an option to buy the facility.  Writer Jack Lattimer, who broke the story in the San Mateo Times newspaper, noted that the big oval with three 22-degree banked turns had seen very little use lately outside of some “small time races.”

Christie, a 40-year old racing veteran from Grant’s Pass Oregon had qualified for eight consecutive Indianapolis 500-mile races between 1956 and 1963 with a best finish of tenth in 1960. Outside of Indianapolis, much of Christie’s racing career was spent in AAA (American Automobile Association) and USAC (United States Auto Club) stock cars. Christie appeared to be an unlikely candidate for a race track promoter as when not racing, he traveled the country as an employee of JC Penney Automotive Centers.

Just over a month after that surprising announcement, a United Press International wire article revealed that KS Enterprises Inc. had signed a 20-year lease for Marchbanks Stadium. T L “Tommy” Francis, identified as the KS vice president and general manager, said that the facility would immediately be renamed Hanford Speedway.

Francis a former stock car racer from San Gabriel California had notably competed in the 1950 Carrera Panamericana Mexican road race. Francis and co-driver Jimmie Crum were initially reported as killed after their 1950 Ford crashed and rolled over in the final stage, but that report was corrected after the pair and their battered car appeared at the finish line in Chiapas after the time limit had expired.   

In an extended newspaper interview, Francis related that the newly-formed company headed by Kalmon “Kal” Simon planned to spend $200,000 over a two-year period to develop the track into “the Indianapolis of the West.”  Simon, a machinery dealer, was virtually unknown although he had been involved in racing previously as the owner of a late model stock car. The new business, KS Racing Enterprises, Inc. was registered as a California corporation on May 11, 1964 with the 12-story Taft Building in Hollywood listed as its official address.   KS also maintained business offices in an industrial section of the City of El Monte and the Yucca Vine Tower office building in Hollywood.

The new company’s plan was to bring Indianapolis-type cars to Hanford “possibly within six months” to race for a purse of $20,000 before projected crowds of 35,000 to 75,000. In the UPI article Francis stated that “California is the breeding ground for racing with 48 race car builders located in the state,” and he noted that “of the 311,000 fans at the Indianapolis ‘500,’ 48,000 were from California.” 

Francis also revealed that Henry Banks, the USAC Director of Competition, and Louis Meyer, the first three-time Indianapolis ‘500’ winner, had recently inspected the Hanford facility and given a “100% okay for USAC stock car racing” and that the pair of retired champions thought that the track would be suitable for Indianapolis-type cars with a “few minor changes.”   

On September 5, 1964, the California Racing Association (CRA) sprint cars ran a 100-lap feature on the Hanford Speedway paved half-mile track in a program with a purse of $3,500. The entry list for the 24-car starting field included local favorite (and three-time Hanford track champion) Frank Secrist in the #94 Boghosian Brothers car, but it was Bob DeJong from San Francisco who set quick time in qualifying.

Speedway General Manager Francis reported paid attendance of 7,156 fans who watched Paul Jones (Parnelli Jones’ younger brother) flip down the backstretch during the feature and suffer a broken leg and collarbone in the crash. Hal Minyard in his Leonard Surdam owned Chevy-powered sprinter beat defending CRA champion “Lover Boy” Bob Hogle to the checkered flag with the race completed in 42 minutes 41.3 seconds.   

Due to the success of the first CRA visit, Hanford Speedway hosted the sprint cars again on Sunday afternoon October 11, with additional grandstands erected to accommodate up to 12,000 fans. In the penultimate CRA race of the 1964 season, things were not much different as DeJong again set quick time and Minyard won the feature again - this time Hal edged out 1961 CRA champion Jack Brunner who had started the 100-lap feature from eighteenth starting position.

In notching his tenth CRA feature win of the season on a warm 90-degree day, Minyard also shaved two minutes off the track record for the 50-mile distance. Bob Hogle second in points raced the Morales Offenhauser powered sprinter with an arm injury suffered in a crash the week before, but soldiered on to finish sixth after he stopped twice for new tires.  Two weeks later after the CRA season finale at Ascot Park, Minyard at age 40 was crowned the 1964 CRA driving champion as his car owner Leonard Surdam from Rialto California won the car owner’s title.

On Sunday afternoon November 29, 1964 the Hanford Speedway, which was now referred to as a mile and half long track, hosted the USAC stock cars, with qualifying held on Saturday the 28^th. 1964 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner AJ Foyt won the pole position with an average speed of over 109 miles per hour (MPH) followed by Joe Leonard and Rufus “Parnelli” Jones, who three days earlier had won the Turkey Night Grand Prix for midgets with Bobby Unser in the fourth starting position.    

Other USAC ‘stars’ in the field included Lloyd Ruby, Bob Christie, Norm Nelson, defending USAC stock car champion Don White, Dempsey Wilson and Eugene “Jud” Larson who made an unusual stock car start.  With Hanford the penultimate event on the USAC schedule, Jones, the 1963 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner held a 300-point advantage over Nelson for the title of 1965 USAC stock car champion but Parnelli needed a solid finish to clinch.    

Bobby Marshman, who shared Rookie of the Year honors in the 1961 Indianapolis 500 with Jones, was scheduled to appear at Hanford but he suffered critical burns on November 27 in a tire-testing crash of his Pure Oil Firebird Lotus 29-Ford at Phoenix International Raceway. Marvin Porter winner of the 1960 NASCAR Grand National Marchbanks race was called upon to substitute for Marshman.  

KS Enterprises predicted more than 20,000 fans would attend the 200-mile ‘Billy Vukovich Memorial’ race, but only 6,500 fans passed the turnstiles.  Foyt in a 1964 Dodge charged into the lead trailed by Leonard, and the top remained static until the pair pitted around halfway through the race. Jones who had pitted earlier around lap 50 took the lead on the pit stop exchange but was forced to the stop for more fuel on lap 105.

When Jones stopped, Foyt regained the lead and raced to the win over Jones, Leonard, Unser and Marvin Porter with Lloyd Ruby in sixth place. Jones had secured his 1964 USAC stock car championship earlier in the race when the engine in Norm Nelson’s Plymouth blew up on lap 39. With his third-place finish at Hanford, former AMA motorcycle champion Joe Leonard clinched the USAC stock car division’s Rookie of the Year honors.  

During the 1965 season Hanford Speedway, which KS Enterprises billed as “Big H” that they advertised offered racing that included “stock, Indy Cars, sprint, sport and unlimited,” hosted two CRA sprint car races, both 50 lap events. The first CRA event was held on Sunday February 21 on what was now billed as Hanford’s 5/8-mile track. In practice on Saturday, Ernie Koch in Ben Zakit’s rear engine Offenhauser-powered sprint car from Oregon crashed and the crew was unable to make repairs in time for the car to compete in the next day’s races.

Ray Douglas in the Fisher Chevrolet-powered car topped the 31 cars that presented for qualifying and he set a new track record of 21.95 seconds. Second and third qualifiers Dick Atkins and Dee Hillman, teammates on the team owned by John Pestana and Bob Lang that used the former Fike Plumbing machinery, also eclipsed the old track record.  Don Thomas, Tink Elenberg, and Billy Wilkerson were the winners of the three five-lap preliminary heat races.

Douglas started the feature from the pole position and led the first 16 laps of the feature which was slowed by four caution flag periods for oil on the track, spins and crashes. Atkins powered past Douglas on the backstretch on the 17^th lap and then held off his teammate Hillman to win by two lengths. Bob DeJong the former track record holder finished third trailed by Hal Minyard and Bob Hogle.  

In the week following the CRA sprint car race, San Mateo Times writer Jack Lattimer reported that with new financial backing, Hanford Speedway manager Tommy Francis was remodeling the “poorly designed” 1.8-mile track. “Parts of the track are being rebuilt and the racing groove stretched to two miles,” Lattimer’s article claimed “the turns will be 65 feet wide with two short and two long straightaways similar to Indianapolis. All turns will be equal and banked 15 degrees.” According to Lattimer, Francis hoped to have the new track ready by April 7 for a 200-mile USAC national championship race.

A month later, Lattimer wrote in the San Mateo Times that Hanford would host a 200-mile USAC championship race on the two-mile oval on November 7, followed by a 150-mile USAC stock car race on November 27.  There is no confirmation that the USAC schedule actually planned on a 1965 Indy Car race, but neither the race or the promised track construction ever occurred.  A planned 1965 American Motorcycle Association (AMA) 125-mile championship road initially scheduled for April or May 1965 was cancelled during the month of March according to the AMA “due to the promoter’s failure to confirm date.”

Hanford Speedway hosted an open-competition 200-mile race for cars with “early late model stock bodies (1950 to 1962) with big late model mills” for the weekend of April 17-18, 1965.  The $5000 purse event, run over the track’s 15-turn 1.8-mile road course was sanctioned by California Auto Racing Inc (CAR), the successor to the California Jalopy Association.

CAR president and race promoter Art Atkinson, a used car dealer and former race car driver, explained that the race was part of a “new trend of road racing stock cars which is spreading fast.” Advertised entries for the “Cotton Picker 200” included Frank Secrist, Jim Cook of Norwalk, Marshall Sargent of San Jose Speedway fame, and drivers from the nearby towns of Bakersfield, Shafter, Oildale, Porterville and Delano. Practice was scheduled for Friday with qualifying on Saturday to determine the “100 fastest cars to start.”

The promotion was a disaster as only 31 cars entered with some of the entries Atkinson described as “so bad we warned them not to run over 30 miles per hour.” Atkinson claimed that a “calculated cold-blooded plot” was the reason for the failure, because “other minor league local clubs called mandatory inspections for Sunday to sabotage my program.”  Bobby Mills of Porterville won the race despite that fact that during a pit stop an excited crewmember accidentally poured two gallons of water into the car’s fuel tank. 

The CRA sprint cars returned on Saturday night May 29 1965 for a scheduled 24-car 50-lap feature race. Entries included earlier winner Atkins and Frank Secrist, but Jay East drove Leonard Surdam’s orange #1 car to victory in place of regular driver Hal Minyard, who was “back East” as sale representative for his ‘McHal’ line of racing helmets. East started the feature from eighth place and made a daring last lap pass in turn two to claim his first career CRA feature victory.    

The November 28 race at Hanford Speedway was the final date on the 1965 USAC stock car schedule, and the Rookie of the Year honors had already been awarded to Canadian phenom Billy Foster but the driver’s championship still hung in the balance. Norm Nelson held a 260-point advantage over second-place driver Paul Goldsmith with 400 points available to the race winner. Behind the lead pair, Don White and Jim Hurtubise were separated by just 215 points in their battle for third place.   

Other big-name USAC drivers entered for the 200-mile included Sal Tovella, Bay Darnell, 24-year old Gary Bettenhausen and the 1965 Indianapolis 500-mile race rookie of the year and new USAC National Champion Mario Andretti in a 1964 Ford sponsored by Hanford Speedway promoter Kal Simon. Other entries included midget racer Tommy Copp, Dempsey Wilson, Lloyd Ruby, and USAC stock car rookie and three-time race winner Bobby Isaac although none of that quartet was able to crack their way into the 31-car starting field which was led by fast qualifier Goldsmith in Ray Nichels’ 1965 Plymouth.

The race day crowd of over 9,000 fans saw Foster start second in a 1965 Dodge and Hurtubise from third in Norm Nelson’s #56 1965 Plymouth. Hurtubise, Foster and Goldsmith all lead early but each retired with engine failure, and Goldsmith’s retirement on the 87^th lap not only handed the lead to Norm Nelson, but clinched Nelson’s second USAC stock car championship.  Nelson crossed the finish line several laps ahead of Scotty Cain to claim the $2,000 winner’s check with Mario Andretti in third, five laps behind Nelson, with only 11 cars were still running at the finish.  This marked the USAC stock cars final appearance at Hanford, and it would be four years before the CRA sprint cars would return.