While out on a ride one Sunday last summer, Steve Mikolas and I stopped by a place I had known about for a long time, but only a few days earlier had actually discovered where it really was: Paramount Ranch Racetrack. It turns out the track-long abandoned but still existing in places-is just off popular Mulholland Highway in southern California, and we'd been riding past it for years. The track was active for just a short time in the mid '50s for both cars and bikes, but was shut down because it was deemed too dangerous.
Paramount Ranch was originally used for making movies in the black-and-white era. The Ranch changed hands in 1955, with the new owner building the track and operating it for just 18 months. Eventually, the site reverted back to a popular venue for movie shoots, and it is now a state park with a permanent western-town set that is still used occasionally.
Several corners of the track can still be seen on the property, grass and weeds sprouting up from the broken pavement. The distinguishing feature is still there as well: a bridge that forms the track into a figure 8. I could see right away why the track was closed so soon after its inception: The underpass of the bridge is right on the exit of a turn, and the track is only about 15 feet wide underneath. Any current rider would take one look at the layout today and walk away.
Other aspects of the track made it challenging at the time. One long turn looks very fast and has multiple radii, with the narrow width adding to the trickery. There is a steeply banked turn in the back section. And just looking at the layout of the track near the bridge made me catch my breath.
For a long time, I've been fascinated with what a lot of people call "ghost tracks", tracks that have been closed for a long time but still exist in some form or another. Seeing the coarse pavement overgrown and being gradually taken back by nature always makes me think of the circuit's history. Who rode there? What was it like to ride? Why did it eventually close? Over the past while, I've become addicted to Google Earth, searching for remnants of tracks and delving into their history. It's amazing the number of dirt and paved oval tracks that were sprinkled around the country at one time; all that's left of some are a change of color in the grass, others are still there in almost their entirety. Many of the road circuits (such as Riverside International Raceway and Ontario Motor Speedway here in California) have been overrun by housing developments, making it difficult-if not impossible-to see any remains, but others, like Paramount Ranch, are still around and can be explored.
Ironically, Steve and I carried on to the Rock Store on that Sunday, where I met someone who had actually raced on the Paramount Ranch track back in the day, and learned some more of its past. It was an interesting day, and made me even more eager to look around for old tracks and learn their history.
It's interesting to note the onward march of safety when checking out these old tracks. What was considered fine at one time is unsafe now, partly because bikes are faster and partly because riders are more cautious. Just standing on the bridge at Paramount Ranch gave me the jitters, and it's hard to believe that even in the fifties people raced there. Over the almost thirty years that I've been riding, my own perspective has certainly changed. I've visited tracks that I raced at years ago, and my older, more experienced eye notices a lot of things like walls and trees that I never even saw before.
Poking around on Google Earth or the satellite view on Google Maps also reveals some interesting details of current tracks. A long time ago, before the widespread use of the internet, a friend of mine showed me an aerial picture of our local track, and pointed out that one section differed significantly from the hand-drawn map that we had been using. He suggested changing my line based on what he saw on the picture, and that saved me some time on the stopwatch. Now, I'm always checking out the satellite view of tracks to see if I can unlock any of their secrets.
I guess standing on an old track, or seeing it on the computer screen, brings up memories of long-ago, fun times. One of my fondest, earliest memories was riding on the back of my brother's Honda S90 along the abandoned runways at Harewood Acres, an airfield track in Ontario that has long since been turned into a subdivision. It also brings to mind racers of years past; maybe some champion cut his teeth on the circuit, or maybe there was an epic race that people still remember. It also makes me wonder how future sport riders will look back on our current time. Another fifty years from now, maybe someone will stand on what's left of, say, Laguna Seca and ponder its rich history.