56th United States National Speedway Championship
Saturday, October 10, 2026 · 6 PM · Costa Mesa Speedway, 88 Fair Dr · Costa Mesa, California
About this event
Speedway bikes have no brakes and one gear, run on methanol, and are steered almost entirely with the back wheel. The United States national title has been decided on the same small oval since 1969.
Harry Oxley built Costa Mesa Speedway in the late sixties with Jack Milne, the 1937 world champion, and the family still has it: Brad Oxley, Harry's son and a two-time national champion himself, runs the place with his wife Jaleen. The promoters left the AMA in 1998, so the championship is now an independent national title rather than a sanctioned round of anything.
The track is a 185-yard oval of clay and decomposed granite laid inside the Orange County fairgrounds, floodlit, with a race going off roughly every three minutes — four riders, four laps, no time to settle into it. The card takes in sidecars, Harley racers and juniors alongside the championship itself. Max Ruml has taken the last four titles; Mike Bast holds the record at seven.
Thirty dollars at the gate, under-tens free, cash only. This is a spectator night rather than a ride-out, and it is over in a couple of hours.
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