Orange County Speedway, Laguna Hills

Ad for the Orange County Speedway, L.A. Times, June 20, 1963

The following blurb about the Orange County Speedway in Laguna Hills (not to be confused with the O.C. International Raceway in Irvine) was written by the late great Jim Sleeper in 1991 for a "Freeze Frame" feature in the Orange County Register. I'm not sure if it was ever used. Interestingly, he writes it in a different writing style than his own -- as if to disguise his contribution. 

"After farming in Trabuco and Aliso canyons for years, in 1933 Spanish Basque rancher Domingo Etcheberria bought forty acres on the west side of Highway 101 (now I-5) a mile north of El Toro. In 1963, Domingo's daughter Rose and her husband, Johnny Noutary, opened the Orange County Speedway on the property... A quarter-mile oval track with a windmill in the middle, the Speedway hosted midget auto races three days a week. In 1970 Noutary also relocated his El Toro Garage, formerly on the east side of the highway since 1942, near the track. Unfortunately, encroaching development from Leisure World killed off the Speedway in 1977 and the garage a year later.  The windmill which once irrigated Etcheberria's watermelon farm likewise disappeared in 1978 when it was carted off to Mexico... Surrounded by commercial high-rises today, the old track where 'the mighty midgets' once roared is now the site of a Carl's Jr. at 23002 Lake Forest Drive, Laguna Hills."