Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE T oday when we hear the name Torrey Pines the first image that comes to mind is golf. Torrey Pines is the legendary golf course north of San Diego, which is an annual stop on the PGA Tour and in 2008, hosted the U.S. Open won by Tiger Woods. But in the mid-1950s motorcycle racing enthusiasts would recognize Torrey Pines for be- ing the site of a popular road race course. It hap- pened to be the site of the season finale of the 1955 AMA Grand National Championship and it ultimately turned out to be one of the final motor- sports events at Torrey Pines before it was turned into a golf course. Torrey Pines got its name from a rare variety of white pine found only on the Torrey Pines mesa, and on Santa Rosa Island south of Santa Barbara. Interestingly motorcycle racing history on the grounds dated back to the 1910s. Art Holmes crashed his 1916 Har- ley-Davidson in Torrey Pines while trying to win back the highly-pub- licized Los Angeles to San Diego record he and Roy Artley traded back and forth a few times. On August 24, 1916 Holmes won the record, averaging just under 60 mph over the 132 miles, in spite of taking the spill in Torrey Pines after clipping a tree (perhaps a Tor- rey Pine). Holmes raced the final 16 miles down the winding grade of the Rose Canyon into San Diego with a separated shoulder. In 1940 the mesa became a military training camp. Camp Callan opened in January 1941. It became a city of 15,000, with paved streets and nearly 300 buildings, including three theaters and five chapels. Just months after the end of the war, the camp was declared surplus and the lease ter- minated. The feds then sold all the buildings to San Diego for $200,000, a princely sum at the time. After the buildings had been razed, the streets of Camp Cal- lan remained, and with the use of some rubber cones and hay bales, it became the Torrey Pines Race Course in 1951 - a twist- ing, turning 2.1 mile circuit on which both sports car and motorcycle racers competed. There is little left of the race course today, but old-timers recall the start-finish line somewhere in the vi- cinity of the eighth green of the South course. Riders headed north, turned left (across what is today the sixth fairway) on a loop that headed to- ward the ocean, then away from it (east on the first fairway of the North Course). Turning north again, the race track soon made two right turns TORREY PINES – THE MOTORCYCLE ROAD RACE COURSE P132 Andres sweeps into a turn with his leg down flat track style. Note the Torrey Pines in the background of the photo.