[t-head]

The last part of the Lompoc Racing story by Curt Cragg.

The T-club began looking for suitable locations to build a track just outside the city limits. There was plenty of open land, but in a fertile farming valley, few people could afford to concede productive property to a race track. In the midst of a depression, the club members were not in a position to purchase property either.

The creative outcome was that the club members reached an agreement with a local farmer to use his field between crops. Once the crop was harvested, the club members would plow out an oval race track. The stipulation from the farmer was that they would re-plow the field once the racing was over.

The first T-Club oval track was cut at Beckwith Ranch, a few miles east of Lompoc on the Lompoc-Buellton Highway (now Highway 246). It was a picturesque setting with the green hillsides in the background and the track surrounding two “lakes”, which were actually vernal ponds used for irrigation.

If It had been a wet year the ponds contained some water. This was important because the only way to keep the track from becoming a dust bowl was to water it down before the races. Located in a narrow valley that drew ocean air into the inland Santa Ynez Valley, conditions could be windy, especially in June. Add to that the churning wheels of a dozen race cars and the mix was a whirling dervish of dust. Wearing only goggles in cars with no front windows or tops, the drivers were facing limited visibility and tough driving conditions, especially if they weren’t in front.