It seems like everyone is racing around and that hasn’t changed much over the years.
Culver City was known to have two race tracks. One, which began as a horse racing track, then became known as “The Speedway” in the 1920s, where Barney Oldfield raced cars on the board track.
Today that site is Dr. Paul Carlson Park, formerly Victory Park, which was the first city park (1927).
There was also another race facility in Culver City, at the “west end” on Washington Boulevard.
This property, now Costco, is often remembered as the headquarters of the 1984 Olympics, aerospace manufacturer and defense contractor McDonnell Douglas, an interim swap meet, greyhound races starting in the 1930s and the home of auto races in the 1940s.
City records show this property annexed to the city in the mid-1920s. When Culver City had greyhound races there, pari-mutuel betting was the norm, which added to our racing reputation.
The last entry for car racing was “Auction City” where Dick Lane is remembered advertising jalopies on television as “Old Leatherbritches.” The city’s aerial map in 1953 shows the track reconfigured to a figure eight.
In the Sept. 24, 1938 official form program pictured, the cover advertised “America’s Fastest Racers.”
Within the program, there is one page entitled “Kennel Kracks.” In addition to learning about their safety hurdles and glass starting boxes, they also touted having “Wonder Photo Finish.”
Articles on the “Kennel Kracks” page had titles like “Handsome Lee Picked To Win Feature Race Tonight.”
The column began “Thousands of pairs of eyes strained last night to get a glimpse of Phil Regan, the former Brooklyn policeman who now has a definite niche in the film world.”
It continued with “Regan, whose last flicker was “Outside of Paradise,” a Republic release, presented a beautiful trophy to the leadout man on behalf of Pete Mosconi, owner of Mighty Black, victor in the featured American Legion Cup race over the five-sixteenths of a mile route.
“The cup was presented in honor of the Culver City Community Post No. 46 of the American Legion, under whose auspices the Southwest Kennel Club is operating.”
These evening races began at 8:15 p.m. and on this particular evening “Handsome Lee’s” chief contenders were listed as “Dusty Pepper, Brandy Flask, Jerry Elfrink and Archie Bowen.”
And so we continue to race around.
