OCIR was founded by three men with direct connections to the Irvine Ranch. Bill White was a member of the Irvine family, the ownership group behind the massive private land holding that covered much of what is now central Orange County. Larry Vaughan, whose father had served as foreman of the Irvine Ranch, managed the lease relationship with the Irvine Company and also ran the Academy of Defensive Driving, a school that primarily trained police officers. Mike Jones, a local entrepreneur, subleased the dragstrip portion of the facility and managed its day-to-day drag racing operations. The three partners took a lease from the Irvine Company on August 5, 1967, opening the facility the same day.
The founders' ambitions for OCIR went beyond a standard drag strip. The facility was conceived as a complete motorsport complex capable of hosting road racing, midget car racing, motorcycle competition, and stock car racing alongside drag racing. The name "The Supertrack" conveyed their intent to build the most modern and fully equipped facility in Southern California.
Spectator amenities were a deliberate design priority at a standard then unusual in West Coast drag racing. OCIR was built with extensive permanent landscaping, permanent restrooms and concession areas, reserved seating with seat backs, and drinking fountains installed throughout the grounds. The facility featured the first electric scoreboard in drag racing, removing the handwritten or manually operated boards that were standard at the time. A four-storey, 40-foot-high, glass-enclosed control tower and administration building served as the operational centrepiece of the complex.
The NHRA sanctioned the dragstrip operation, giving OCIR access to the national organisation's points series and its top professional competitors.
OCIR hosted a range of motorsport disciplines across its operational life. The dragstrip attracted the sport's biggest names during the golden era of National Hot Rod Association competition, including Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Don Prudhomme, and Tom McEwen — drivers who defined professional drag racing in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The road course hosted sports car and road racing events including the 1968 California International Grand Prix, bringing a different class of competitor and spectator to the facility. Midget car racing took place on a speedway oval configuration within the complex. The facility also hosted the Bug-In, a Volkswagen enthusiast and racing event that became a recurring fixture and drew large crowds from the regional VW community.
In one of the more unusual events associated with the site, Evel Knievel performed one of his motorcycle jump stunts at OCIR, adding the counterculture spectacle of stunt performance to the facility's event history.
In 1968, the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving was founded at the road course associated with OCIR. Bob Bondurant, a former factory sports car and Formula One driver, established the school as a professional high-performance driving instruction programme, training both competition drivers and civilian performance enthusiasts. The school's founding at OCIR placed one of the most respected driver training programmes in the United States at the facility during its earliest and most active period.
OCIR operated under its original lease arrangement for sixteen years before the Irvine Company declined to renew when the lease expired on October 30, 1983. The non-renewal reflected broader pressures on motorsport facilities in suburban Orange County, where residential development was rapidly expanding the population surrounding the site. Noise complaints from nearby residents had grown as the surrounding area was built out, and the commercial calculus favoured redevelopment of the land over continuation of the racing lease.
The site was subsequently redeveloped. OCIR's closure ended an era in Southern California drag racing and road racing, and the facility is remembered as one of the most comprehensively equipped and purpose-built motorsport venues that the region produced in the NHRA era.