Paramount Movie Ranch Destroyed In California Fire Once Hosted USAC Stock Car Races

The historic “movie ranch” immolated in last fall’s firestorm twice hosted USAC stock cars on a 2-mile sports-car track in rural Agoura, California. Contemporaneous publications proclaimed it to be the first figure-eight road course in the west. Ironically and tragically, its most-notable feature—a tunnel that enabled the elevated cross traffic seen in HRM photographer Eric Rickman’s overview—became notorious for ending the lives of both the racetrack and the amateur sports-car racer who was ejected after skidding into a concrete upright. His was the second death of that final weekend in December 1957.

Most of the film and TV “Westerns” supposedly set in Southwestern badlands were really filmed much closer to Hollywood. Their dusty trails and Main Street storefronts were installed just over the hill, literally. Studio chiefs accurately calculated that reserving huge hunks of cheap land outside L.A. beat hauling talent, crew, and equipment to Tombstone and back. Paramount Studios bought these 2,700 acres on the western edge of the sleepy San Fernando Valley in 1927. In 1980, 436 acres were preserved as a national park and filming site. Western Town was rebuilt in 1984 and stayed busy with movie, TV, and commercial productions until the fire.

Race cars performed only seven times over two seasons before insurance was reportedly canceled. All were California Sports Car Club meets, except the two USAC shows depicted here: a 250-miler on Nov. 4, 1956, won by Sam Hanks in Bill Stroppe’s (15) Mercury; and the 100-mile event on Apr. 28, 1957, that saw Jimmy Reece’s (85) Pontiac finish third.

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