Six original photographs of pre-War California midget car racing in Los Angeles, circa 1941

[Midget Car racing]

Los Angeles: N.p., 1941. Collection of six vintage photographs of California midget car racing, each with the same decorative border, at the short-lived Atlantic Speedway in Los Angeles, circa 1941. Featuring an unknown race car with number 23 painted on the tail, and "Warner Spl." painted just below the cockpit, a few of the mechanics responsible on-hand. "X34" rubber-stamps on the versos.

Midget racing began in California in the early 1930s in Los Angeles, the sport then owned and operated by the Midget Auto Racing Association (MARA). Small custom cars, many called "specials," looped on small wood tracks formerly reserved for bicycle races. A notable venue was Gilmore Stadium, built in 1934 by Earl Bell Gilmore, an heir to the Gilmore Oil Company. The Atlantic Speedway operated about 1935-1942, near Compton at the intersection of Atlantic and Banducci Boulevards (now part of Long Beach Expressway), and this collection offers a humble, pocket-sized look at that lost California track.

2.5 x 4 inches, silver gelatin. Near Fine.


[Book #143462]