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From 1909 until 1919, a big winter road race was held in Santa Monica that attracted top drivers and thousands of spectators. The starting and finish line was on Ocean Avenue at Montana — today a pretty upscale stretch of coast on the top of the bluffs. The racers sped down Ocean, turned left onto today's Wilshire Boulevard, then raced east to today's San Vicente Boulevard, turned left and and looped back to the starting line through the fields that were developed into Brentwood. It's a pretty interesting slice of forgotten local history that author Harold Osmer researched deeply for a couple of books. Now former Huell Howser producer Harry Pallenberg is posting a series of documentary videos with Osmer at Where They Raced.
The screen grab above shows a crash scene at Ocean and Wilshire, a turn dubbed the death curve even though no one actually died there. Here's a taste.
Where They Raced: Episode 3 Road Races part 1 from Sunny & Mild Media on Vimeo.
Previously on LA Observed:
The old days of car racing in L.A.
