The 2003
King Taco 500 was to have been the nineteenth and final race of the
2003 CART World Series season on November 9, 2003 at the
California Speedway
Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previo ...
in
Fontana, California. However, the event was canceled because of a series of large
wildfire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...
s in the
San Bernardino Mountains north of the speedway.
The wildfire, which was dubbed the
Old Fire
The Old Fire was a large complex wildfire that started on October 25, 2003 (the original Old Fire began on October 25), near Old Waterman Canyon Road and California State Route 18 in the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County, South ...
, started on October 25, was just one of many in the Southern California region at the time. Because of concerns about the air quality, spectator and driver safety and worries that safety equipment and volunteers needed for the race would be occupied in fighting the fires, the race was initially postponed on October 28. When attempts to find a date to reschedule the event failed, the race was officially cancelled on October 29. A scheduled
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
Winston West Series
The ARCA Menards Series West, formerly the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, NASCAR AutoZone West Series, NASCAR Winston West Series and NASCAR Camping World West Series, is a regional stock car racing series owned and operated by the Automobile Racin ...
support race was also cancelled. Points leader
Paul Tracy
Paul Anthony Tracy (born December 17, 1968) is a Canadian-American former professional auto racing driver who competed in CART, the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series. He is known by the nicknames "PT" and "the Thrill from West Hill". ...
had already clinched the season championship following
the previous race at
Surfers Paradise.
CBC.ca Paul Tracy clinches CART championship
/ref>
References
{{CART World Series race report,
Name_of_race = 2003 King Taco 500 ,
Year_of_race = 2003 ,
Previous_race_in_season = 2003 Lexmark Indy 300
The Nikon Indy 300, 2003 Lexmark Indy 300 was the eighteenth last race of the 2003 CART World Series season, held on 26 October 2003 on the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, Queensland, Australia. A hail storm 20 minutes into the race caused an ...
,
Next_race_in_season = 2004 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Next Season
(as Champ Car World Series) ,
Previous_year's_race = 2002 The 500
The 2002 MAVTV 500, The 500 presented by Toyota was the eighteenth round of the 2002 CART season, 2002 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on November 3, 2002 at the Auto Club Speedway, California Speedway in Fontana, California, United ...
,
Next_year's_race = 2004 Toyota Indy 400
IndyCar Series event
'' 2012 MAVTV 500''
500-mile race at Fontana
Fontana
MAVTV 500
King Taco 500