The Fastest Road In the West Is Up For Sale
Willow Springs International Raceway, located about 60 miles north of Los Angeles in Kern County, California, has hosted almost every type of road race since it opened in 1953. Everything from Can-Am and Trans Am to go-karts and Spec Miatas have plotted for position and hustled around the seven tracks at the facility. Bill Huth purchased the site in 1962 and it has been in the Huth family ever since. Now, nine years after Bill Huth’s passing, the family is offering up the race facility and its several tracks to the highest bidder.
The facility at Willow Springs is famous for its fast, sweeping, 2.5-mile “Big Willow” race track, also known as “The Fastest Road in the West.” The course wraps up the side of a hill and back down, creating elevation changes that keep the course interesting. The quick turn eight, followed by the decreasing-radius turn nine that leads onto the front straight, has bruised plenty of egos and wrinkled multiple fenders. It remains a racer favorite.
The facility is more than the main road course, however. Street of Willow is another fun, challenging track that is smaller and tighter. It was added to the facility in 1988. Horse Thief Mile, perched further up the hill, was added in 2003. Two oval tracks, dirt and paved, a kart track, and a pair of skid pads that can be used as an autocross track are also located on the 600-acre property along with paddocks, a restaurant, and several restrooms.
With all of those facilities and its proximity to Los Angeles, it’s no surprise that Willow Springs has been a favorite location for many Southern California media outlets, including film production and automotive testing for magazines and award-winning YouTube channels. There’s no asking price listed, and we have no idea what it would take to acquire such a big chunk of land and several tracks, but some of our favorite stories have come from our on-track experiences at Willow Springs. We hope that whoever buys the facility will manage it successfully and keep the fabulous tracks humming with events.
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My fear is this will be another industrial park on cluster of condos. Just like Riverside.
Me too
Dudes…one day we should all like… pool our money and buy a bar together.
Paul, to quote Seinfeld, “I think you might have something there!” Would gladly commit to an increase in the cost of my Hagerty Drivers Club membership if it supported and contributed to this effort!
Emilia Hartford is trying to get the financing together to buy it.
https://youtu.be/C5ue1RifS9o?si=1dJ-zwtYV7rdAmCQ
Back in March at a vintage event (VARA) we were introduced to the new owner of the facility. What happened ? Did that deal fall threw ?
so, for all of us who lament loss of one of the three so cal tracks, how frequently do you spend money there?
i’ll go first: one track day per year, always at willows.
I would be curious on where this goes. I would hate to see it go.
Let’s hope enough unite with cash to save this track so we’ve a place to “open track” our cars free of texting twits.
Chris DIP – Over 2,500 people own a piece of this years Preakness winner ‘Seize the Gray’ and doesn’t Seinfeld own one or two percent of the Mets? – Lets pass the hat.