CRUISING LYONS NO DRAG, EXCEPT AT SPEEDWAY; FAST CARS MARKED GENTLER TIME.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

As car culture swept America in the 1960s and '70s, Lyons Avenue and Saugus Speedway growled the loudest in the Santa Clarita Valley with gas-guzzlers and souped-up heavy metal.

Local teens and young hipsters paraded sedans and vans with shiny chrome trimmings along Lyons Avenue, vehicles sporting customized pinstriping, engine snorkles and exhaust systems that would defy today's emissions standards.

And while Van Nuys Boulevard had become the meeting place for young singles down in the San Fernando Valley, Lyons Avenue was the showroom for local youths to show off their handiwork on their fixer-uppers, and a place for friends to meet up after high school football games.

Newhall resident Kathy Martin, a 1974 Hart High School graduate, borrowed her parents' mammoth pea-green Ford Torino on weekend nights to cruise Lyons Avenue with friends, decked out in the polyester bell bottom pants, hot pants, tube tops and the hand-woven blouses from India that were popular at the time.

``It wasn't a stop-and-meet thing because we already knew each other,'' Martin recalled. ``There were only two high schools at the time and the (Santa Clarita) Valley still was relatively small in size. It was more like we'd pass each other and wave hi.''

Parts of the Santa Clarita Valley by that time had experienced two decades of residential development that brought suburban neighborhoods to the rural community. The most recent addition was Valencia, a residential community created by The Newhall Land & Farming Company that took decades to plan and introduced more than 570 families to the Santa Clarita Valley when it opened in 1967.

Teens from all over the Santa Clarita Valley made their way down to Lyons Avenue in Newhall, where they cruised from a dirt lot (now Vons market), turned around and made frequent stops at Hart Park and the former site of Kentucky Fried Chicken near San Fernando Road, recalled Martin, also a member of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

This went on repeatedly throughout the night, prompting police to issue tickets for those who drove too slow and erect ``No U-turn'' signs at breaks in the median that bisected Lyons Avenue.

Some teens sought more excitement and traveled 20 miles down the Golden State Freeway to Van Nuys Boulevard, where strip malls and bright lights ushered in bumper-to-bumper carloads of Southern Californian teens.

But not Martin.

``I was forbidden to go down there,'' she said, adding with a laugh, ``We were told nice girls didn't go there.''

But with numerous local teens enrolled in auto-shop classes at Hart and Canyon high schools and few places to go in the Santa Clarita Valley, customized roadsters were plentiful and cars inevitably became a central focus in the social lives of teens and young adults. They drove in groups to places such as the Mustang Drive-In on Soledad Canyon Road or gathered inside and outside area burger joints.

Others raced cars and many more were fascinated by the sport, made popular locally after the Bonelli Stadium transitioned in the late 1940s from a rodeo venue to Saugus Speedway, an automobile race track. The track continues to be used today for swap meets and Go Kart races.

``We had lots of backyard Mario Andrettis,'' Martin said. ``Back then, everyone raced . . . You could race at Saugus Speedway and you didn't need sponsors.''

In the early 1970s, Martin got to know several teen-age boys who worked as pit crew members through her part-time job at the newly opened Magic Mountain theme park, and they often invited her and her friends down to the auto pits before the races.

``That was the big thing - if you got invited down to the pit. You had to know someone,'' she said.

The speedway is remembered as one of Santa Clarita Valley's main forms of weekend entertainment, as it often held a variety of other shows, such as music, fairs and rodeos, according to Historical Society member Thomas Frew.

``For a long time there, you either went to the movies or the Saugus Speedway,'' recalled Frew. ``There wasn't much else to do for younger people or families.''

``It was great,'' said Martin, now married with children. ``Saugus Speedway drew people from everywhere - not just Santa Clarita. There were little kids with their dads to teens with their friends. It was a great big mishmash of everybody. It was just Middle America all in one place.''

The facts

In the 1960s and '70s, the groundwork was being laid for the city of Santa Clarita against a colorful backdrop of farms, ranches, Western culture and budding suburbs. Here are some highlights:

Aug. 28, 1962: Actor Gene Autry's Melody Ranch burned to the ground. (It was rebuilt years later by the Veluzat family.)

Nov. 1, 1963 - The community of Saugus was divided, and residents on the east side voted to name their side Canyon Country.

Aug. 20, 1967 - The Newhall Land and Farming Company dedicates the community of Valencia, after decades of planning, with more than 570 homes that sold from $21,000 to $29,500, around a network of neighborhood pool clubs and walking trails named paseos.

1969-1970 - California Institute of the Arts, founded by Walt and Roy Disney and Lulu May Hagen, opens its Valencia campus to classes as construction continues.

Sept. 22, 1969 - College of the Canyons opens in Valencia.

May 21, 1971 - Magic Mountain opens with a charity benefit.

Aug. 24, 1974 - Pyramid Lake opens for recreational use.

Aug. 3, 1975 - Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, Santa Clarita Valley's only hospital, is founded.

Sources: Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

Ruth Waldo Newhall's ``A California Legend.''

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Box: The facts (see text)