Barona Race Track Survives Firestorm
by Johnny McDonald

Barona Race Track was surrounded by the firestorm but largely survived intact. Aerial photo by Grants Photography, taken from the window of a West Coast Flyers Inc. of Ramona airplane.

Trapped on an island of asphalt, two dozen workers and fans fought back Cedar Fire flames to protect three Barona racing facilities, located some six miles from the Barona Casino on Wildcat Canyon Road.

Trailers, mobile homes, personnel and race cars were pulled onto the 250,000-square-foot drag strip as fire surrounded the area, according to promoter Mike Goodwin.

In addition, there were several antique dragsters on the grounds for the next day's show.

"Drag race events had just been completed at 11 p.m. when the fires were spotted," Goodwin said. "It was an all night vigil and a couple days more to weather the fire storm.

"We lost our new power unit which had just been installed so we had to go back to our generator."

An oak tree fell on a tow truck and a storage trailer was lost but grandstands, concession stands and restrooms are in operation for the drag strip, quarter-mile speedway and motocross track.

Goodwin, an El Cajon general engineering contractor, and partners Joe Welsh, Boxie Phoenix and Tony Katasek had spent $1 million to provide an alternative for street racing and to educate the competitors on the basic fundamentals of the sport.

Speedway promoter Todd Salazar told reporters that it was somewhat of a miracle. At first it was felt they would lose everything, he said.

Katasek used Barona Speedway's 2,000-gallon water truck to spray the larger flames. He filled it from the 10,000-gallon tank on the grounds.

Thirty-eight homes on the nearby Barona Indian reservation were destroyed.