Legion Ascot Speedway was an American race track in El Sereno, California that operated from 1924 to 1936. It hosted AAA Champ Car races.

Venue: Legion Ascot Speedway
Town: Los Angeles, US

Legion Ascot Speedway was an American race track in El Sereno, California that operated from 1924 to 1936. It hosted AAA Champ Car races. After the construction of a 5⁄8-mile dirt oval in El Sereno had been announced in early December 1923, the new Ascot speedway, which was built by promoter George R. Bentel and his publicist Bill Pickens, opened on January 20, 1924, when 35,000 spectators attended the inaugural event, which featured both auto and motorcycle racing. The next racing program, which was held two weeks later, was marred by the tracks' first fatality when Jimmy Craft was killed on the southeast turn. Many drivers would die at this curve, which was immediately nicknamed "death curve." The promotion of Ascot during the first months of its existence was a popular and financial success. However, the Ascot Gold Cup, a road race held on Thanksgiving Day 1924, saw its outcome challenged by drivers contesting both the eligibility of other competitors to participate and the official race distance. Drivers also charged that prize money had been withheld. Bentel and other officials of the Ascot Speedway Association were handed suspended 30-day jail sentences for false advertising in April 1925. In the meantime, Ascot had been taken over by the creditors' committee of the association, the new management being headed by its trustee John S. White, who scheduled the next racing event for late January 1925. The site was run unsuccessfully by various promoters in the years that followed, occasionally serving as a venue for boxing matches. The American Legion Post 127 of Glendale, which had started promoting the track in the fall of 1928, entered into a long-term lease of the property in early March 1929, having secured AAA sanction for the American Legion Speedway. 15 months later, it was renamed Legion Ascot Speedway based on the legionnaires' assessment that they had rehabilitated "Ascot," giving the track the name it would be widely known by. Major drivers raced at th