California 500 (Indycar)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (December 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The California 500 was a CART race held at Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California. The event represented a continuous lineage of open wheel oval racing in the Southern California-area that dates back to 1970.

History[]

Open wheel oval racing in southern California dated back to the USAC California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California, held from 1970 to 1978. The race was part of IndyCar racing's "triple crown", and at its inception, was held in high prestige. The inaugural running was considered a huge success, with 187,000 in attendance. However, it became a CART event in 1979 and the track fell into financial troubles in 1980 and closed at the end of 1980. Subsequent running's were never able to match the success of the 1970 event.^[1]

Indy car races were also held at nearby Riverside, but only from 1967–1969 (prior to the opening of Ontario) in 1970 and again from 1981–1983 (after Ontario closed in 1980).^[2]

Race results[]

Season	Date	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)
						Laps	Miles (km)
USAC Championship Car
1970	September 6	Jim McElreath	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Coyote	Ford	200	500 (804.672)	3:07:22	160.106
1971	September 5	Joe Leonard	Vel's Parnelli Jones	Colt	Ford	200	500 (804.672)	3:16:55	152.354
1972	September 3	Roger McCluskey		McLaren	Offy	200	500 (804.672)	3:17:58	151.54
1973	September 2	Wally Dallenbach Sr.	Patrick Racing	Eagle	Offy	200	500 (804.672)	3:10:17	157.66
1974	March 10	Bobby Unser	All American Racers	Eagle	Offy	200	500 (804.672)	3:11:04	157.017
1975	March 9	A. J. Foyt	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Coyote	Foyt	200	500 (804.672)	3:14:22	154.344
1976	September 5	Bobby Unser	All American Racers	Eagle	Offy	200	500 (804.672)	3:29:26	143.246
1977	September 4	Al Unser	Vel's Parnelli Jones	Parnelli	Cosworth	200	500 (804.672)	3:17:16	154.687
1978	September 3	Al Unser	Chaparral Racing	Chaparral	Cosworth	200	500 (804.672)	3:26:40	145.158
CART Indy Car World Series
1979	September 2	Bobby Unser	Penske Racing	Penske	Cosworth	200	500 (804.672)	3:24:22	146.794
1980	August 31	Bobby Unser	Penske Racing	Penske	Cosworth	200	500 (804.672)	3:11:51	156.372

References[]

External links[]

• Champ Car Stats: Ontario archive, Fontana archive
• Ultimate Racing History: Ontario archive,