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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE D aytona, Laguna Seca, the Springfield Mile, Peoria, Un- adilla, Anaheim—all iconic racing venues for motorcycle enthusiasts. Included in that group of legend- ary racetracks at one time was Ascot Park. The legendary dirt track venue in Gardena, California, was so popular that Honda named a motorcycle after the place, the FT500 and VT500 Ascot. Ascot Park held AMA Grand Nationals (both Half-Miles and TTs) from the late 1950s to the early 1990s, but perhaps equally important was the weekly Friday night program the track held for years. On September 29, 1990, it all came to an end. As- cot held its final race. It was a sad and certainly memorable evening in Gardena. Ronnie Jones raced to victory that night in the AMA Grand National Half-Mile (appropriately enough on a Honda), and with that, the curtain closed on a track that seems destined to live on genera- tions ahead by way of its storied history and legend. "You can't say you're a motor- cycle racer until you've ridden Ascot. And you can't say you're a champion motorcycle rider until you've conquered it," Kenny Rob- erts once told legendary LA Times motorsports reporter Shav Glick. Over the years Ascot helped make the names of many riders who won there. Riders like Sammy Tanner, Al Gunter, Neil Keen, Eddie Mulder, Skip Van Leeu- wen, Mert Lawwill, Gary Scott, P120 THE LAST ASCOT Kirschenman (1965), Bob Skib- sted (1964) and Thomas Campbell (1961). Not to mention the sad and bizarre story of Travis Petton who, in 1967, crashed at Ascot and then died when the ambulance he was being transported in was involved in a head-on collision. Experts say the tackiness of the racing surface, which made for excellent multi-line racing and spectacular lean angles, was the very thing that made the track so lethal. Instead of a typical low-side flat-track crash, riders often got sideways, then caught traction and were flung over the high side into the unforgiving barriers that lined the outside of the oval. "Ascot is the toughest track in the country to come in and race against the local riders," Carroll Resweber, a four-time AMA Grand National Champion, who never could win a national race at Ascot, told Shav Glick. From 1959, when Kenny Roberts, Gene Romero, Jay Springsteen, Ricky Graham, Bubba Shobert, Doug Chandler, Chris Carr, Scott Parker, and many more. Interestingly, Evel Knievel made his first nationally televised jump at Ascot. The track was also infamous for the toll it took over the years. Among the most notable riders who passed away from crashes at Ascot are Ted Boody, who hit the wall coming out of turn four on the final lap of the national there in May of 1988; Peoria TT winner Jimmy Phillips died from a crash in 1958. And then there were the lesser- known racers who passed away like Steve Polson (1980), Dewayne Keeter (1975), Tom Warren (1975), Elbert Turner (1974), Ivan Shige- masa (1973), Ted Longwith (1972), Pat Gosch (1971), Marshall Becker (1969), Steve Pederson (1968), Don McAlear (1968), Clemmie "Stonewall" Jackson, (1965), Karl "Ascot Bookends" is how Gene Romero referred to Sammy Tanner (center) and Ronnie Jones (right) since Tanner won the first Ascot National in 1959 and Jones the final one in 1990. Standing on the left is Jay Agajanian. PHOTO: MITCH FRIEDMAN