race, and the third largest attendance for a stock car race behind the Daytona 500 and the Talladega 500. The Questor Grand Prix, won by Mario Andretti on March 28, 1971, was a head-to-head battle between European drivers using Formula One cars against the U.S. Formula 5000 series. This format was a precondition to receipt of a second FIA sanctioned U.S. Grand Prix. The crowd of only 55,000, while the largest to attend a road race in California, was a disappointment; even so, the speedway's schedule of upcoming events printed on page 130 of the 1971 California 500 official program listed a "Second Annual Questor Grand Prix" taking place on April 9 as "One of two full-points World Championship Formula 1 races scheduled for the U.S. next year." From a racing standpoint, the inaugural season was a tremendous success and from an attendance standpoint only the hybrid Questor Grand Prix was a disappointment. In April, 1971, Lockton resigned as CEO from Ontario (as well as from Sports Headliners) to pursue non-automobile racing related interests and was replaced as CEO by Ray Smartis, the vice president and general manager. Despite the speedway's commercial success in building attendance for each event and the clear potential for future profitability, in the short term, the operating company had difficulty meeting its debt service obligations on the municipal bonds, primarily due to the shortfall of the hybrid Questor Grand Prix race and a downturn in California 500 attendance in year two. The advertising campaign for the Inaugural California 500 had guaranteed seat purchasers seat renewal rights in perpetuity if they paid for them within 30 days of the last race. Over 20% of the seats for the second 1972 Cal 500 event were sold on this promotion, providing the OMS with almost $800,000 in advance ticket sales. Rather than a sustained campaign, the advertising or promotional money was not spent on the 1972 race until only a few weeks before the event and attendance was marginally down approximately 30,000 in the second year. In 1973 the operating company was sold and in a desperate attempt to make the debt service payments the new operators devised a strategy to stage two California 500 races in one fiscal year. For the third California 500, the established and popular Labor Day date was sacrificed for a March 10 date, despite the evidence from extensive original market, traffic and