Santa Maria Speedway to reopen this month, host sprint car, go-kart races
The Santa Maria Speedway is on track to reopen this month, supplying the region once again with 410 sprint car racing on summer nights and throughout the year.
“We are planning to rebrand back to the original name of Santa Maria Speedway, which has been in operation since 1964,” said David Castaneda, who has worked at the speedway for about 20 years as general manager. “We think that will be very popular with our longtime fans going back. We are dropping the Stadium 805 (name) and we are going to be focusing exclusively on racing for 2024.”
The one-third-mile oval dirt track hosted everything from go-karts, dwarf cars and winged sprints to banged-up stock cars, monster trucks and motorcycles, and was in virtually continuous operation until COVID-19 struck.
For at least 30 years, it also served as a venue for live music concerts, along with festivals, special events and, most recently, Hispanic rodeos.
In 2019, the speedway was purchased by Nick Duggan and his wife, and renamed Stadium805. In 2021, they announced they were closing the stadium.
The current owner is Gravity Nipomo, LLC, based out of Redwood City. They are selling the property to Tony Pombo and his Fresno-based company, Fisicaro Entertainment, LLC, and have guaranteed Castaneda the lease through the end of 2024 to allow him to manage the track as they complete the sale.
The last big track race was held in August 2022 and the last go-kart event, a much smaller event, was in November 2022, according to Castaneda.
“Our plan is to get back into racing action this summer with a limited schedule. With the purpose of going to a full schedule in 2025,” he said.
The speedway is set to open April 27 depending on the weather, with the possibility of that date being pushed to May 11 if rain persists.
“Those are all set dates with set divisions traveling series that go up and down California. From USAC, which is the United States Auto Club to CRA, the California Race Association that has the non-winged 410 spreads. We got four races scheduled for them, including one two-day show on the 4th of July weekend,” said Castaneda. “Also, we are bringing back King of the West, which is the winged 410 spreads, which is also a very, very popular series.”
While the City of Santa Maria is not involved with the venue — the facility at 1900 Hutton Rd. is in southern San Luis Obispo County, just across the Santa Maria River — the reopened speedway will create jobs and be an entertainment draw, said city spokesman Mark van de Kamp. It could also boost tourism and hotel stays in Santa Maria, he noted.
“The speedway opened in 1964 and for decades its third-mile track drew many racing fans locally and throughout California,” said van de Kamp. “New owners renamed it Stadium 805, made investments, obtained a temporary license for concerts in 2020, then ceased operations indefinitely in August 2021 after County of San Luis Obispo code enforcement focused on unpermitted music concerts and rodeo activities.”
Gravity Nipomo wants to keep the facility a race track, and is working with everyone to make that happens, said Castaneda.
“His (Pombo's) sons and nephews are still race car drivers, so they race wing sprints also. It’s definitely a good thing that we have somebody coming in that really has a racing background and a love of racing," Castaneda said. "I think that’s a very important aspect of anybody who is going to take this track to the next level, they really have to have a love for racing because it is a very low-margin business.”
Duggan decided to sell out due to the strict event attendance restrictions imposed by COVID-19 and conflicts with the county and neighboring communities over noise and permitting for some events, said Castaneda.
Duggan decided to sell out due to the strict event attendance restrictions imposed by COVID-19 and conflicts with the county and neighboring communities over noise and permitting for some events, said Castaneda.
The race track was shut down for multiple reasons, but the problem initially started around 2017 with a new housing development behind the venue, said Castaneda. The development was abandoned for a long time, but once it was re-started, “a bunch of people bought homes in 2017 and immediately started complaining about noise,” he said.
“They focused on the concerts and claimed that we had never done concerts before and we did. We have records of concerts going back to the 70s, 80s, 90s. Then doing them previously up to 2017.”
The speedway has not included concerts in their schedule for 2024, but there is an ongoing discussion between the speedway and San Luis Obispo County regarding the possibility of hosting concerts in the future, according to Castaneda.
The speedway has dedicated the past year and a half to property maintenance, dealing with challenges such as flooding, fallen trees and electrical problems, and track repairs stemming from prolonged inactivity. Castaneda said that to prepare the track for racing, the speedway pulled money from its pre-production budget of about $75,000.
“There is a lot of work to be done, but we are working every day. We got crews out there working on the grandstands and we are rebuilding some of the infrastructure that we have to make it safe and comfortable for everybody,” said Castaneda. “A lot of beautification needs to go on so that we can be proud to have people walk through the gates and enjoy a good night of racing.”
Castaneda said several residents have talked to him about their nostalgia for the sounds of sprint cars on summer nights during the reopening process.
“For years the southwest border of our property has been filled with old growth eucalyptus trees and it is not so much that we are planting more but it’s that we are not chopping them down,” said Castaneda. “We are trying to keep those maintained because they are a significant noise barrier and if you remember when we were built in 1964 there were no homes out there.”
The Speedway's Kart program doesn’t really generate much noise at all, said Castaneda.
“Those carts do not make a lot of noise, and I have never had complaints of noise from anybody except that neighborhood, “ said Castaneda. “We do everything we can to mitigate the noise by trying to be done by a certain time, but we don’t have a time certainty when it comes to racing. Just because if a sprint car flips over it can cause a long delay. My goal to put on a good show is to always be done by about 9:30 p.m. and for the most part we make that happen.”
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