Auto Club Speedway's two-mile oval takes a final lap into Inland Empire racing history
LOS ANGELES — Long before Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch notched their first NASCAR Cup Series victories at legendary Auto Club Speedway, Fontana was home to a quarter-mile strip that became a major stop for the National Hot Rod Association while also attracting on a nightly basis all manner of amateur racers.
Oh, and a monster.
Not a monster truck or an energy drink, but an alleged beast described by a local newspaper as "a horrible monster with a hairy body, long hands, and claws dripping with slime."
Two teenage girls reported to the San Bernardino County sheriff's office in August 1966 that while parked on Base Line Road near the racetrack, the creature emerged from behind a bush and scratched the neck of Jerri Lou Mendenhall, 16, before she made like drag racer Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins, hit the accelerator and sped away.
Sheriff's deputy O.W. Manning said, "I think this monster business is a lot of hooey," but hysteria ensued anyway, with teens descending on the area with .22 rifles. The
