The San Diego County Fair will pay tribute to Southern California’s car culture — from the highways to raceways — during its 75th anniversary run this year. The fair’s theme, “Race to the Fair” — and it’s about cars. The 22-day fair in Del Mar runs from June 10 to July 4. “This is a fabulous theme where we feature race cars, exotics and luxury, movie and muscle cars, dune buggies and woodies,” said public relations director Linda Sweig. “We’ve received good response from the car clubs so that we’ll have something different to display every day… hundreds and hundreds of cars. This exhibit is expected to be very popular with over 1.3 million expected to attend the fair.” The theme exhibit will be located in a 90,000-square-foot building near the off-track betting facility. One segment will retell the story of auto racing at the fairgrounds, where sports cars zoomed throughout the grounds and parking lot. Also featured will be Champ/Indy cars that whizzed around the racing oval itself. In those days, “Race to the Fair” meant more than a slogan for thoroughbred horse racing. It might be noted, too, that the Goodguys’ annual spring hot rod show is held at the fairgrounds. It is considered one of the nation’s largest events. “Automobile racing took place here during three distinct eras,” said Roger Tertocha, who is in charge of the racing section. “Each era will be represented by cars that actually raced here. There is also going to be a car representing the vintage races that were here on several occasions. “We plan to include trophies, still images and video to tell the stories of the drivers who competed, as well as the evolution of automotive engineering,” he said. “The eras are: 1946-49 Champ/Indy cars on the dirt oval, 1958-1965 SCCA cars in the parking lot, 1987-1991 IMSA cars through the fairgrounds and vintage cars that performed in shows. Featured will be the 1987 Toyota Celica and 1990 Toyota MKIII, both Grand Prix winners.” The MKIIIs won 21 of 27 national — including an IMSA record 14 straight — to earn dual Camel GT titles for driver Juan Fangio II and manufacturer Toyota in 1992 and 1993. It is a record that ensures the MKIII a place as one of the most dominant cars in racing history. Among others on display will be a 1911 Fiat from the Lindley Bothwell collection, a 1960 Formula Junior Dolphin and a 1948 Kurtis that raced in the 1949 Triple A race at Del Mar. NOTES: GM’s doing real well. Automotive News reports that General Motors posted a net income of $3.2 billion for the first quarter, its fifth straight quarterly profit since emerging from bankruptcy. It stripped out one-time charges and gains, including $1.6 billion in income from the March sale of GM’s ownership in Delphi Automotive. Revenue grew 15 percent to $36.2 billion.








