Lakeport Speedway

About Us

Lakeport Speedway is a 1/4 mile paved oval located inside the Lake County Fair Grounds. To the average person that comes to attend events at the facility either during a race or sees the track during the fair might think it is a little short track nestled inside the fair grounds. Simple as it may appear on the surface there has been a lot of sweet and blood put into the facility by all those that have had a hand in forming what is now one of the premier short track racing venues on the west coast. There is no simple story to explain what is so important about this little oval of heaven hidden in this facility. To get a sense of the track from within the following words, we will take a journey back into the colorful past of the race track and how it was born.

The race track was built in 1948 by Bob "Bucky" Barkhiemer, where is operated under his direction as Cal Stock Racing Association or CSRA for short. The track operated under CSRA until Bucky sold the association to Nascar, where he became the Vice president of western operations for NASCAR. Lakeport Speedway operated under NASCAR until a group of seven guys all put up fifty bucks to start NCRA. The seven guys that made this association up where Bill Deschamps, Ted Neilson, Bill Robinson, Bob Campbell, Vic Henry, Frank Swanson, Stan Corse. The association then started their first race season in the spring of 1966.

The association promoted itself from 1966 to 1984 when they hired Bob and Nadine Strauss to promote the track. They promoted the track from 1984 until they retired in 2007.

Upon their departure a new management team took over at the start of the 2008 racing season consisting of Furia - McIntire Promotions. The new management team has operated the facility since the 2008 racing season to present time. David Furia has introduced a new perspective on traditional speedway promotion that has opened the doors for the association to even step out in the community and help many more people than those just directly involved with the race track.During 2008 the speedway in conjunction with Nascar Driver Derek Thorn, worked to raise money for the ALS association.

During the winter of the 2011 the association under the direction of current management just extended their contract with the fairgrounds through the 2015 season to help insure that the race fans will have a place to come enjoy races for many more years to come. The association contracts with a management team to handle the day to day operations of the race track.