Irwindale Speedway Is Not Closing Down After All

Scheduled for closure at the end of next month, California track confirms to The Drive that it’s been granted a reprieve.

byKate Gibson|
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California's Irwindale Speedway, aka The House of Drift, will remain a motorsports facility.

The speedway in August said its last day of operation would be Jan. 31, 2018, with owners of the property planning to redevelop it.

Now called the Irwindale Event Center, the half-mile short track facility has a quarter-mile track inside the infield and an adjacent drag strip.

On Friday, spokesman Doug Stokes told The Drive that "a contract was signed, a deal was made to keep both the speedway and the drag strip open."

"We have good news," added Stokes, declining to elaborate further but saying a more detailed statement would follow.

The speedway, which opened in 1999, filed for bankruptcy in 2012 before being sold the following year to Irwindale Outlet Partners, which let another promoter run the track until the time came to bulldoze the property to develop a 700,000-square foot shopping mall.

The site of more than two dozen NASCAR K&N Pro Series/Winston West events, Irwindale has also hosted Super Late Model and drift events. 

The Southern California site has a special meaning to Formula Drift, as it hosted the country's first organized, large-scale drifting competition back in 2003. 

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