1950s–70s
Cruise Night & the Raceway
Van Nuys Boulevard was a cruising strip from the 1950s on. Police cracked down from 1974, and still, by the late 1970s, the Wednesday-night cruise could draw tens of thousands of cars.
San Fernando Raceway, known to racers as "the Pond," opened in 1955 on a triangle of land off Glenoaks Boulevard in San Fernando. It was one of the first purpose-built drag strips in the country and ran for 15 seasons, closing in late 1969. A swap meet fills the site today.
Both designs are our own lockups.
June Ellen's donuts was one of the turnarounds; the CSUN Daily Sundial wrote about "the June Ellen's side" of the boulevard in 1973.
- Cruise night
- Wednesdays, Van Nuys Blvd.
- San Fernando Raceway
- 1955 to late 1969
- Raceway site today
- A swap meet
