Louis Van Dyke, in the International Motors Simca Special, leads John Von Neumann in his Porsche, at Torrey Pines, on July 20, 1952.
Photo: Philipe Turich from the Cliff Emmich collection
During the early fifties, road racing in the United States took place, for the most part, at airports. While airports have a number of advantages, they lack the interest and drama of actual roads. Without the authority to utilize public highways, venues were hard to come by.
As road racing developed on the West Coast, two sites for real road courses were established: Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines. Both were in spectacular seaside locations. Pebble Beach was laid out on the private roads of a land development, the Del Monte Properties on the Monterey Peninsula. Torrey Pines used the roads of an abandoned Army base. Only a few miles from metropolitan San Diego, it attracted large numbers of spectators.
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