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Lost Drag Strips

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by BobG, Nov 30, 2008.


  1. I was born and raised in Puyallup and we used to go to the Puyallup Drags all of the time in the late 60's and early 70's-good fun. Thun field was there then, and it still is, they were fairly close to each other, but Thun field never took over the Drag strip. When Puyallup Drags closed down, they brought in a lot of dirt and turned it into a motocross track. Now with the population growth neither are there, and haven't been for a long time-too much noise and the usual reasons-sad.
     
  2. vncruiser
    Joined: Mar 5, 2005
    Posts: 541

    vncruiser
    BANNED

    It was! Parts flew into the parking lot! Saw a flywheel buzzsaw a vinyl top on a Nova once...
     
  3. vncruiser
    Joined: Mar 5, 2005
    Posts: 541

    vncruiser
    BANNED

    No one has mentioned California Speedway in Ontario, Ca...It was host to the California 500 and the NHRA Winston World Finals in 1975....State of the art facility that went bankrupt after only a few years...Also hosted the California Jam rock festival...The entire place was torn down and most of it is still vacant land along the 10 freeway......
     
  4. Edsel_Presley
    Joined: Dec 4, 2009
    Posts: 547

    Edsel_Presley
    Member

    No pictures except from the sky.

    First was the Holly Ridge Drag Strip. Closed in the late 60s

    Second is the Unofficial Holly Ridge Drag Strip. An old abandoned military runway. No rules, just run. Military dug a big ditch around the whole thing to keep people out in the 70s after some Marines got killed there. According to my dad it was crazy there. 6 cars on one end and 6 on the other and run them interlacing eachother. Cars not stopping and running right into the woods. Rednecks with guns. Sonds like fun and I'm sorry I missed it.
     

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  5. philly the greek
    Joined: Feb 15, 2009
    Posts: 1,863

    philly the greek
    Member
    from so . cal.

    It was at Ontario that one of the funny cars I did the lettering on got my first "best appearing car" award . The "Pioneer" car of John Collins . Thanks for the memories .
     
  6. 72Gremlin
    Joined: Mar 10, 2007
    Posts: 63

    72Gremlin
    Member
    from Illinois

    Assumption was "Motion Raceway"
     
  7. 72Gremlin
    Joined: Mar 10, 2007
    Posts: 63

    72Gremlin
    Member
    from Illinois

  8. 72Gremlin
    Joined: Mar 10, 2007
    Posts: 63

    72Gremlin
    Member
    from Illinois

    BULL!! Brimfield KILLED it!! They whined soooo bad that on election year the Peoria County Board voted it DOWN!!! I went to several meeting to support the track!! I was going to BUY one of the homes he was going to buy up along the track property!!!
     
  9. 72Gremlin
    Joined: Mar 10, 2007
    Posts: 63

    72Gremlin
    Member
    from Illinois

    Let me CORRECT myself. I'm sorry!! The track promoter TRIED to open I-74 Dragway FIRST up near Brimfield..WEST of Peoria on I-74. Had the ground pretty much bought ip...Peo county Cops were supporting him..BUT whining FARMERS and Brimfield idiots killed it by bitching to the County Board on ELECTION year!! THEN he went on to TRY and do the I-39 strip. The nearby town WANTED it...but his investors did not like it beoing too close to Rioute66 dragway. I'm sorry for the confusion!!
     
  10. doughboy2518
    Joined: Dec 7, 2008
    Posts: 21

    doughboy2518
    Member

    Cordova Illinois, Still standing!! luckily this picture is of them re-doing the track not tearing it down

    [​IMG]
     
  11. 72Gremlin
    Joined: Mar 10, 2007
    Posts: 63

    72Gremlin
    Member
    from Illinois

    Love Cordova!!!! Hope to race there again next year!! It's come a LONG ways since Scott Gardner bought it!!
     
  12. Zack Methvin
    Joined: Jan 1, 2010
    Posts: 296

    Zack Methvin
    BANNED

    This is almost depressing seeing these tracks then and now. I sure wish some things could stay the same.

    Does anyone remember the dragstrip in Jackson, Ms called Riverside Dragway? I spent a good many years there, this was where i met Don Garlits for the first time. The track was on the east side of Jackson right on the north side of interstate 20. I have a bunch of photos from the early seventies i will post on here as soon as i can scan them in. I have so many memories at that track it is unreal. My dad had a dark green 1957 Chevy truck he raced there in the early to mid seventies. Today it is a big commerical building and no one would ever know a dragstrip used to sit there. I know things cannot stay the same forever but it sure is sad to see something like an old dragstrip be destroyed. So many memories, so many friends.
     
  13. I love this thread but I hate to see the shells of the the old raceways. It just amazes me how many these dragstrips were closed and property is just sitting there!!!!! I was just in the area last night of the ol Orange County International Raceway!!!! I drove right by where it used to be from what I can tell in pics and what I have been told by some of the ol timers.The track was closed when I was just a lil tike,so I never got to experience it. I had to settle for Terminal Island in San Pedro and that was ok and it even got closed down.
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2010
  14. philly the greek
    Joined: Feb 15, 2009
    Posts: 1,863

    philly the greek
    Member
    from so . cal.

    I remember one day in my shop Tom Mcewen was over because I was doing the lettering on one of his funny car bodies , and we were talking about the rumers to shut down OCIR. Tom says to us " what the hell are they gonna put between a Marine base ( El Toro ) and a freeway ?" Well let me just say this ,,Costco and a bunch of other useless office buildings . Developers , ya gotta hate 'em !!
     
  15. Is there a cosco now ? It was dark and I didnt notice. I remember about 4years ago Pat Ganal did that story on lost dragstrips and I remember him saying that the return road at OCIR was still visible in this modern day. Either way it just sucks:mad:
     
  16. Big Block Bill
    Joined: May 14, 2009
    Posts: 300

    Big Block Bill
    Member


    I think a guy I went to school with, told be his Dad got the dontract to strip the missle site. Hampton has been closed 10-12 years now..... last drag strip on LI. It could have been saved but the owner was an idiot.....
     
  17. philly the greek
    Joined: Feb 15, 2009
    Posts: 1,863

    philly the greek
    Member
    from so . cal.

    I've lived in the area for 30 years and I can say that there is nothing there to suggest that a dragstrip was ever there , sorry .
     
  18. hotrod40coupe
    Joined: Apr 8, 2007
    Posts: 2,561

    hotrod40coupe
    Member

    [​IMG]
    Here is one from Lions, Gary Gabelich driving. I was there when it opened and when it closed. It breaks my heart everytime I think about it.
     
  19. What a bunch of pricks them damn city workers were.
     
  20. Onandaga Dragway, off Bellvue road,near leslie MI last open in 1978. Some guys are leasing the property, and the township lets em "test" on the track from about noon till 5 or 6 in the summer, they are supposed to resurface the track in the spring. The return road is long gone, so we have to turn around and go back -up the track to the starting line. It is inbetween a cornfield, and a horse pasture. Really no place to watch from on the line, and all the parking and "pits" are down at the big-end...... We only run 1/8th mile, but it was still awesome to run on a track that "once was".... I just was hoping to take some pics, but actually raced my car! Art arfons ran the green monster here in 65..... Maybe some of the old timers have pics from "back in the day"....

    Enjoy,
    James
    Summer 2009

    Looking off of the end of the track
    [​IMG]

    Looking at the end of the track
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    From the end of the track looking towards the starting line, 4,000 ft AWAY current "pits" on the right in this picture
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Nice '57 was making some passes
    [​IMG]

    A couple cars on their way "up" the track to turn around and make a pass
    [​IMG]

    Starting line in the distance:
    [​IMG]
     
  21. 72Gremlin
    Joined: Mar 10, 2007
    Posts: 63

    72Gremlin
    Member
    from Illinois

    Awesome to see the old track being used!!! I'd LOVE to be able to buy the old "Boondocks" outside of Peoria Illinois and do something like this!!!
     
  22. Chuck R
    Joined: Dec 23, 2001
    Posts: 1,347

    Chuck R
    Member

    This was a sad day, one part of this that makes me crazy is about 2 years after the strip was closed the local newspaper ran an in depth series on what is wrong with our youth and why do they race on the streets? It seems they forgot all about closing the strip 2 years earlier. Think there might have been a connection????

    chuck
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 1, 2014
  23. MORE:

    Some cars making a pass:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Sitting in my car near starting line, waiting to make a pass:
    [​IMG]
    My car: not hamb friendly, I know I know
    [​IMG]

    Looking down track from starting line:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]


    Hope you enjoyed

    James
     
  24. 72Gremlin
    Joined: Mar 10, 2007
    Posts: 63

    72Gremlin
    Member
    from Illinois

    Actually the surface appears pretty darn good...if it's been closed since 1978!!!!
     
  25. I know I was quite suprised by it myself!!! Quite baffled in fact! After 30+ michigan winters! It gets a just a hair bumpy after the eighth, but here in MI, we have all probably street raced on shittier roads at one point or another!
    Thay are re-surfacing it in the spring!

    Unfortunately, they say there is NO WAY this could EVER re-open to the public again, it is just one man, spending his OWN money, hoping for some friends to pitch in to help when they can..... I plan to enjoy it for as long as possible..... A guy tried to re-open it in 1985 and met MAJOR opposition...... He organized a "gathering" at the track site, and about 1500 people showed up, some driving like assholes on the road the track sits off of, doing other dumb stuff, etc..... This is WAYYYY out in the country. That showing where a few people basically ruined it for everyone......

    This is by invite-only, I plan to enjoy it while it lasts!

    James
     
  26. SYCO620
    Joined: Jan 26, 2009
    Posts: 96

    SYCO620
    Member
    from Merced, Ca

    Great pics. My old man raced a 37 Ford there every weekend in the late 50s/early 60s.
     
  27. DirtyEd
    Joined: May 16, 2009
    Posts: 362

    DirtyEd
    Member
    from Dallas Ga.

    Say this thread and had to go to the great Southeastern Dragway in Dallas Ga. today.It KILLED me to see it just sitting there because of greed and a bankrupt builder.THANKS CHARLES HARDY
     

    Attached Files:

  28. WOW!!....All of that corn and a drag strip plum in the middle of it all?!?!? If y'all just ignore that van on the RH side of the pix this great shot looks like a scene straight out of a drag racer's version of the movie Field of Dreams " If you build it, they will come"...
    Thanks for sharing...I hope to sneak out there one day this Summer if possible.

     
  29. Hoosier Hurricane
    Joined: Jul 3, 2008
    Posts: 52

    Hoosier Hurricane
    Member

    I stumbled onto this thread a couple days ago. Sad discussion, but we cannot change the past. I've been racing for 50 years, my first trip down a strip was at Bunker Hill, mentioned in a previous thread. In reviewing the tracks that I have raced at in the midwest, I realize that Avilla in IN and Bluegrass in Nicolasville KY are gone. There are some others I haven't heard anything about in a while, and wonder if they still exist. In Ohio there were: Van Wert, Kettlersville, Piqua, and Marion County. In southern IN was Harrison County (near the town of Floyd's Knobs). In KY was Louisville and Mountain Park (at Clay City). Anyone have any info on any of these tracks? Thanks.

    John
     

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