Photographer's Archive Reveals Lost Racetrack in the Santa Monica Mountains

While the IndyCar Grand Prix of Long Beach is at the heart of motorsport in L.A., there was once a racetrack in Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains that photographer Allen Kuhn used to shoot.

Kuhn sat down with PBS SoCal to show off his incredible vintage photos taken in the mid-1950s at the Paramount Ranch Racetrack, which only operated for 18 months.

“This was my favorite place to shoot by far,” says Kuhn, who only missed one race at the two-mile-long track when it was active.

Kuhn would sit just 20 feet from the cars as they blasted around the ranch at 150 miles per hour. “There’s no barrier separating these people from the cars,” exclaims the interviewer. Safety was notoriously a lot more lax 75 years ago.

“That didn’t bother me,” Kuhn says of the safety aspect. “I figured that 99% of the time… If you’re there at that 1%, then that’s your tough luck.”

Nevertheless, some of his photos from 1956 and ‘57 are truly shocking: rows of spectators standing along the start-finish straight with nothing in between them and the cars. “People could get their toes clipped if the car got a little squirrel,” adds Kuhn. The track was eventually closed after a series of fatalities.

One shot that Kuhn is particularly proud of is a pin-sharp panning shot of American racing legend Dan Gurney in Frank Arciero’s Ferrari 375 Plus, which he took at 1/60 of a second. It’s not easy to do on digital — it’s even harder on film.

“I think my photos show the action of the cars. They don’t have a car or a background all in focus. You can’t read Pirelli tires on Dan Gurney’s car here. I just hope that they [viewers] can get a feel of the sensation that I felt,” says Kuhn.

“I can’t say enough about Paramount Ranch and the enjoyment I received coming here and shooting the pictures. It’s 50 or 60 years later and I’m still working on these things. It’s a big plus for me.”

There’s something about motor racing on film: photographer Jamey Price recently shot Formula One races and a host of other motorsports events on NASCAR disposable film cameras.