Irwindale Speedway to close (2nd Update)

NASCAR K&N Series race at Irwindale

UPDATE Irwindale Speedway is back in business. For a third time writes Keith Lair of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

The race track which had been scheduled to close Jan. 31, 2018 will have at least two more seasons after a new lease was signed Thursday evening. The about-face agreement was signed by a new track operating group, led by Agoura Hills racer Tim Huddleston and his Justice Brothers distributorship. They are calling themselves a Group of Motorsports Enthusiasts led by Tim Huddleston and Justice Brothers.

Jim Cohan, the CEO of Team 211 Entertainment and parent company of the Irwindale Events Center, held yearly leases from land owner Irwindale Outlet Partners LLC for five years. Cohan said Irwindale Outlet Partners told IEC executives last July 24 it was terminating its lease at the end of January, 2018, seven months from then.

But on Nov. 26, the partners came back to Cohan and offered another lease for the 63.5-acre property. Cohan declined to renew the pact.

“After years of year-to-year leases, we just turned the page," Cohan said. “We began looking at other opportunities.

“I hit pause (when they asked in November), but at that point we were in discussions with Tim and I really liked what he was saying. I fought harder to keep the racing there than anybody."

Huddleston won three Irwindale Late Model series championships, the last one in 2008. He turned car owner and his son, Trevor, has won the last three series titles. He was also the NASCAR Whelen All American Series short track national runner-up this year.

Irwindale Events Center holds weekly NASCAR-sanctioned stock-car races, Thursday night drag racing, select NHRA drag-racing events, drifting competitions and operates the L.A. Racing Experience. In addition, it is frequently used for automobile commercials. A Kia advertisement for the upcoming Super Bowl was recently filmed on the property.

It was the first track in America to hold a points-paying drifting competition, introducing the Japanese sport to an American audience. It was also the first track to hold a World RallyCross event.

It has held NASCAR’s All-Star Showdown, a race for the top minor-league touring series, the USAC Turkey Night Grand Prix for midget cars and X Games RallyCross, Gymkhana and Skateboard Big Air events.

Several NASCAR Cup champions have raced on the half- and third-mile ovals.

Cohan said the Jan. 31 event, which is billed as a “Night of Destruction," will have “the biggest fireworks show in Irwindale Speedway history."

Rumors have swirled around the track since the July 24 announcement. Many naysayers have said the track was never closing, but just trying to boost its attendance numbers by announcing the end was near.

“I have had a good relationship with the IOP attorneys and that was not true," Cohan said. “For all intent and purposes, it was closing."

There have been rumors about the state of the mall, too. Sources have said the partners, a group of Chinese investors, have been unable to secure an anchor store and cannot proceed until one is obtained. There are also issues about the land; numerous soil samples have turned up contaminated dirt on the former landfill.

The track opened in 1999 and was quickly called the best short track in America by some of NASCAR’s top racers. Original operator Irwindale Speedway LLC filed for bankruptcy after the 2011 season and the track sat vacant, except for one Formula Drift event in 2012, as Irwindale Outlet Partners was in the process of buying the property for $22 million from Nu-Way Industries Inc.

Cohan and Huddleston’s group initially battled for control of the track and Cohan signed on in 2013. He had essentially one-year leases through this year. In 2016, the owners told race officials the season would end in July, only to extend it until the end of the year.

After the July 24 termination agreement, Cohan and Huddleston’s group still had discussions of how to keep the track open, if it somehow became available; through sale or a new lease.

“I said, ‘Go for it,’" Cohan recalled telling Huddleston.

And when the owners offered the renewed lease, Cohan recalled that he was “flabbergasted."

Cohan said he will take on an advisory role. The track staff, which has about 30 workers, will most likely be kept in place.

“If you’re an Irwindale Event Center employee, it’s a very good day for you," Cohan said.

The track seemed to be on the right path this year. Attendance was the best since 2006. The average attendance for 20 events in 2017 was 4,228. It was the best average since 4,470 for 35 events in ’06. There were four sellouts this year, equaling the most in the track’s 18-year history. Keith Lair/San Gabriel Valley Tribune

WHAT: A state-of-the-art, motorsports / entertainment event facility named Irwindale Event Center that features 6,000 comfortable seats, twin paved oval race tracks (banked 1/2 and 1/3 mile), great sound and lighting systems, paved parking for over 3,000 cars, convenient snackbars and 12 exclusive Corporate "Sky Box" Suites.

WHERE: Located in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley, less than 25 minutes from down-town Los Angeles … Irwindale Event Center is directly adjacent to the 605 Freeway and easily accessible from anywhere in Southern California.

WHY: In the past ten years motorsports has enjoyed phenomenal success and growth across the country … While, at the same time, the Los Angeles area lost its last 1/2-Mile oval short track in 1990. Irwindale Event Center is committed to bringing all the action, color, and excitement of close-up, paved oval racing back to Southern California.

And … On the special event side, Irwindale Event Center's Concert Series features top entertainers in a casual, but elegant, open air setting. Great seats, close parking, good food, and great sounds are all part of the experience. Bringing star attractions to the area for the first time, this venue promises to become a "must visit" place for music lovers of all types.

WHAT KIND OF RACING CARS?: Just about everything with wheels can be found racing on the Irwindale Event Center twin ovals … Stock Cars, Sprint Cars, Midgets, Supermodifieds, Legends, Trucks, and more can all be seen in wheel-to-wheel competition action at this great new facility!

Irwindale gets a reprieve

12/29/17 After being scheduled to close next month to be bulldozed and turned into a mall, California’s Irwindale Speedway isn’t done for after all. Posts on social media said the speedway announced it Thursday night, and a spokesperson from the track confirmed to Jalopnik on Friday that Irwindale will stay open.

The track announced in August that its final date in operation would be Jan. 31, and that the land would become a 700,000-square-foot mall—something that’s been rumored for years. Our Andrew Collins went out there and drifted recently, thinking it would be the last time he’d see the place. That’s a sad realization.

But plans changed somewhere along the way, and while the spokesperson couldn’t give Jalopnik the details what did change, even vague news about a race track staying open is all we can really ask for. After all, who needs more shopping malls? Order it online. Save the short tracks.

While social posts had the general idea about Irwindale staying open down, don’t believe everything that’s out there about the track right now. Some posts say the track will be open for at least another year, some say the track signed a five-year deal. Some say the deal happened because nothing could be built on the landfill the track is on. (There’s a track on the landfill.)

The track spokesperson said there is no announced timeline in regards to the deal, and that the announcement from the other night was something along the lines of, “Literally 30 minutes ago, a deal was made to keep Irwindale Speedway and drag strip open. More details in the following days." That was all, he said.

The spokesperson, who’s working on those details, said they will hopefully be out before the start of the new year. He said he’ll keep Jalopnik in the loop, and we’ll update as soon as we know more.

Until then, just know that the House of Drift will stay open. We don’t know for how long, and we don’t know why, but it will. That’s what matters. Jalopnik

08/10/17 After nearly 20 years in operation, the Irwindale Event Center (previously the Irwindale Speedway) will close in January.

"We were notified this week by the owner's representative that January 31, 2018 will be our final day on the Irwindale property," Jim Cohan, CEO of Team 211 Entertainment, the company which operates the event center, noted in a release. "Our full 2017 schedule of NASCAR, Drag Strip, LA Racing Experience events, and special events will run as published. And, in fact, we're planning on adding a couple of extra events to the calendar to honor all of the competitors who raced and wrenched here at Irwindale since it opened in 1999."

The speedway operated from its opening in 1999, until 2011, when Irwindale Speedway, the then-operator of the property, filed for bankruptcy. According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, in 2013, Lindom Properties bought the speedway from Nu-Way Industries, and signed on Team 211 to be the operators of the newly renamed Irwindale Event Center. But the lease was designated as year-to-year. “We could be out on Dec. 31, 2014 or by Dec. 31, 2020," Cohan said in 2013, according to the Pasadena Star News. “If we’re offered a lease, then we’re offered a lease."

After the 2013 purchase, rumors began to surface that the track and event center would be demolished to make way for a new development. In March 2015, the city of Irwindale approved plans for a 700,000-square-foot mall under ownership of Irwindale Outlet Partners, LLCl; the plan called for the demolition of the event center to make way for the mall. According to Curbed LA, a petition cropped up following the city's decision, which has since totalled over 8,000 signatures from people hoping to overturn the planned demolition. "Many younger automotive enthusiasts who'd be prone to rash behavior (such as illegal street racing) have found a great outlet to express themselves and enjoy their passion in a safe setting," the petition states. "…Are we willing to close an alternative to illegal street racing that has likely saved lives for a buck?"

“A project of this nature could not only help the city, but also the region," Irwindale Community Development Director Gus Romo told the Pasadena Star News in 2015. “It has a capacity of bringing in revenue to the general fund and we believe it will be a catalyst to development around the center."

Speaking on the facility's closure, Cohan said that workers will maintain the atmosphere of the event center till the very end. "I simply want everyone out there to understand that this team is going to work just as hard to keep this a great fan-friendly facility running strong all the way until midnight January 30, 2018," said Cohan. "We all wish that we could have given our racers many more than the five years we were able to and sincerely hope that we entertained all of our guests along the way…"

A timeline for construction of the new mall has not been announced. LAist reached out to Lindom Properties to ask about their involvement and/or ownership in the project, but we have not heard back by publication.