Ascot Park: 1962

This is an aerial photo from 1962 of Ascot Park raceway in Gardena and it's surroundings. The photo was taken with the camera facing east.

Ascot Park was located between Vermont Avenue, the Harbor Freeway (I-110), 190th Street, and Artesia Boulevard and operated from 1957 to November 1990. The raceway was a popular locale for stock car, sprint car, midget, and motorcycle races and was a home for many of 'Evil' Knievel's early motorcycle jumps.  In the middle left of the photo, the left half of the old Carrell Speedway (aka "Gardena Bowl") oval track is still visible. Carrell was in operation from 1940-1954 and the old track was later bisected by Artesia Boulevard.

Also visible in the photo are the newly completed San Diego Freeway (I-405), the Harbor Freeway, and Artesia Boulevard (notice the section east of Vermont Avenue was not yet a freeway at the time). To the right of the Carrell site, on the other side of the Dominguez Channel, you can see the old Vermont Drive-In theaters and Gardena High School. Below is a view of the same area in 2005 ...