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FLASHBACK: CARLSBAD THEN AND NOW
Carlsbad: Then and Now
Where the ghosts of motocross races past still swoop…
By Mitch Boehm Photos by Joe Bonnello
It is perhaps America’s most legendary motocross venue; a scrub-filled and sun-baked hillside and valley just north of San Diego, Calif., that tested locals and the world’s best motocrossers in the severest ways for decades before being closed in the early 2000s to make room for the offices and commercial space that occupy much of the area nowadays.
Several years ago I wandered down into Carlsbad’s gulch to see what was left of the old track, as the commercial stuff was pretty much limited to the upper area along the hillside. And I found quite a lot, including the starting area, the starting straight and turn-one area, the legendary drop off and, in a thickly wooded section just adjacent to the drop off, the remains of one of the old spectator bridges, which you can see in the middle of the 1977 USGP image below.
Standing there on a section of the racetrack, looking up at the massive timbers that formed the framework of that bridge, I could see and hear the crowds and motorcycles I’d watched so many times on ABC’s Wide World of Sports coverage on TV each summer; I could hear Jim Lampley’s voice; and I could see Marty Moates winning both motos so magically in 1980.
Those old motocross ghosts may have been silenced, but they are still there, ripping silently down the Carlsbad Freeway and leaping off the drop off.
The author, comparing photos of the Carlsbad USGP track and spectator bridges to the actual item just a few years ago.
