Too good to last  Carlsbad Raceway, the little drag strip by the
sea  Too good to last Pin It  Feature Article from Hemmings
Muscle Machines  September, 2007 - Jim Donnelly  If the breeze
cleared the haze of rubber smoke and nitromethane fumes just
long enough for you to gulp a few fresh lungsful, you could
smell the brine. San Diego may have ridden the caboose when it
came to the legendary Southern California drag locales, but its
home track was among the most picturesque and vibrant during its
too-truncated existence. Carlsbad Raceway was almost within
sight of the Pacific, squeezed in between a couple of the
chaparral-dotted brown hills that roll along about 30 miles
north of San Diego.  Carlsbad opened on 143 acres in 1963 and,
for almost all of its lifespan, was a wonderfully basic track
without a whole lot of amenities, especially compared with other
regional tracks like Pomona and Ontario. This was, however,
Southern California, which meant that if a straight shot of
broad asphalt existed, it would inv