The Beverly Hills Speedway (also called the Los Angeles Speedway) was a 1.25-mile wooden board track for automobile and motorcycle racing in Beverly Hills. It was built in 1919 on 275 acres of land that includes the site of today's Beverly Wilshire Hotel, just outside of the "Golden Triangle". The site was bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, South Beverly Drive, Olympic Boulevard and Lasky Drive.
The Beverly Hills Speedway was built by Jack Prince and Art Pillsbury and was financed by a group of racers and businessmen that called itself the Beverly Hills Speedway Association. The track was the first in the United States to be designed with banked turns incorporating an engineering solution known as a spiral easement.
At the time, the wooden racetrack was ranked second in race quality only to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Durant Racing team, Harry Miller Designed and built.
Cliff Durant was William Durant's son (General Motors President, co-founder, and also the co-owner and president of the Beverly Hills Speedway). He had the most highly funded team of the day with the best drivers.
Torn down in 1924 to make more money from the real estate than a race track provided
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_City_Views%20(1900%20-%201925)_Page_3.html
The track would wear out as the race progressed. The drivers and mechanics had to be vigilant for the "potholes" in the track, and being lanced by a piece of wood was a very real concern.
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