Things That Aren’t Here Anymore #7 (SG) Traditional Cache
Things That Aren’t Here Anymore #7 (SG)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
When you arrive at GZ, you are in the vicinity of the original San Gabriel Drag Strip.
.
San Gabriel, or Old San Gabe opened in 1956 along the San Gabriel River. The strip had to be moved when the riverbed was made into a flood control channel. I spoke to a person who worked there as a teenager. He said the new location was just a little west of the old strip and the original racing surface was used as part of the pits. He added that if you look at the right spot from the 605 Fwy North, you can still see a portion of the strip's pavement.
The track was built and run by the Tice brothers, who ran a nearby meat market. During the NHRA fuel ban, San Gabriel allowed fuel. They booked in many name cars from SoCal and NorCal, as well as traveling cars from around the country. Plus, there was a paving company next door, and the Tices repaved the track several times to make sure these cars could run faster times there than at other tracks. They went out of their way to make sure they had a good show there every week.
In 1963 the track was closed. What's there now? A big electric power substation. (see it?) Right across the 605 freeway is the new Irwindale Speedway circle track & its eighth-mile drag strip.
San Gabriel was the birthplace of legendary driver "Floyd Lippencotte Jr." Google the name & read the whole great story.
SG was also the birthplace of my passion for drag racing. As young teenagers, our parents would drop us off along Live Oak on Saturday afternoons then pick us up late at night. Once I turned 16 I raced my father's 56 Studebaker Hawk there. Of course he didn't know that until about 40 years later. His comment at the time was "I always wondered why you installed seat belts in the Hawk."
Memories from San Gabriel: Stone, Woods & Cook, Big John Mazmainian, Don Prudhomme, Ivo, Moonyham & Sharp, Gas Rhonda, Butch Leal, Bourgeois & Wade, jet cars, WOW!
Please go to GC225EE to understand the origin of this series of caches.
LO BYOP ENJOY
Congratulations to San Dimas Cachers for FTF !!!!!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Or pnershy jura cnexvat
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures