Hi All,
Here's an interesting historical footnote to SoCalROC's "fun run" last
Saturday: The route was part of the course for the 1913 Pan-Pacific Road
Race. Looks like people have enjoyed driving up there for almost 90 years!
Here's an excerpt from an article in this month's Vintage Racecar Journal:
[Conceived as a way of capitalizing on that public interest in order to boost
auto sales and solicit support for better public roads, the 444-mile Los
Angeles to Sacramento Panama-Pacific Road Race held on July 4, 1913, remains
the longest road race ever run over the Golden State’s public highways.
Motorcycle patrolmen escorted each Panama-Pacific racer from the starting
line and on their way out of town via Los Feliz Road to San Fernando Road
...climbing their way up through the San Fernando Valley and over the pass
into the Santa Clarita Valley. The route passed through Saugus and onto the
tortuous, twisted roads of San Francisquito Canyon.
The 23-mile stretch of road and 1,600-foot climb up through the canyon to
Elizabeth Lake was widely considered to be the most dangerous part of the
course.
Al G. Faulkner, manager of the Simplex-Mercer agency located on South Olive
Street in Los Angeles, described this portion of the course in a pre-race
interview published in the LA Evening Herald:
“The road is in very rough condition and there are many places where the most
careful, heady work will be necessary to carry a car through safely." ]
Competing in the Panama-Pacific Road Race were noted drivers such as Barney
Oldfield; Louis and Fred Nikrent; Frank Verbeck; W. H. “Coal Oil Billy”
Carlson Jr.; Glover E. Ruckstell; Gaston Morris; Sam McKee and Charles
Soules,
Cheers,
Craig Carter
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