Cotati Speedway ‘captured the 1920s spirit of renewal’

The Cotati Speedway had a short tenure, but an exciting one.

Its first race drew 20,000 spectators on a Sunday, and a world record was set. It was Aug. 14, 1921 when Eddie Hearne won first place and a $5,000 prize in a 150-mile championship race.

“A few weeks ago Cotati might be said to have existed only in the provincial egotism of a few Sonoma County citizens. Today, Cotati is the Mecca of the speed-loving public of America,” a Press Democrat reporter wrote on the day of the speedway’s first race.

The next day, the front page of The Press Democrat reported that Hearne smashed world records, driving “at an average speed of 110.84 miles per hour.” He drove a Diestel Duesenberg — an American car brand that folded in the 1930s — and his fastest lap was 39 seconds.

At the time, the wooden Cotati Speedway was the biggest facility in Sonoma County and the largest track in Northern California, according to Cotati historian Marie McNaughton.

“It captured the 1920s spirit of renewal, after the horrors of the ‘war to end all wars’ and the flu epidemic. Men, women, and children came by train, ferry, personal automobiles, and horse-drawn buggies to see the ‘Speed Kings’ defy the laws of God and physics,” McNaughton wrote in an email.

The speedway was developed by track promoter Jack Prince, and construction began in April 1921. It was oval-shaped, 1.25 miles long, and built with over 3 million feet of lumber, according to the Cotati Historical Society newsletter. Board track racing at the speedway included automobile and motorcycle races.

Unfortunately, the speedway closed in 1922 due to financial issues, rainy weather, traffic, and transportation obstacles for spectators to travel to Cotati, according to the Sonoma Historian, the journal of the Sonoma Historical Society. (Construction on the Golden Gate Bridge didn’t begin until over a decade later.)

“That the whole enterprise fell apart after only two seasons must have been devastating, especially for those who had invested their money in it,” McNaughton wrote.

After the speedway was dismantled its wood was sold and used in local buildings, including at the Redwood Cafe in Cotati.

For more information about the Cotati Speedway, check out the permanent exhibit about it at the Cotati Museum & Historical Society.

See the gallery above for photos of the Cotati Speedway during the early 1920s.