Although drastically cut back, BOTH bracket programs are running in 2009. Most coporately own tracks are following this trend. About the only places where real good bracket programs now exist are at the "little" mom & pop tracks. The philosophy now is that if they can't make at least $10,000.00 on an event corporate America doesn't want to run mess with it. The probelm is that bracket racing just doesn't (and never really did draw spectators), unless it's at one of the smaller tracks where the dragstrip is the only entertainment there is on a Saturday night. Or if the track can book a match race to run on the same day. I was the last dragstrip manager of the old St. Louis International Raceway (before it changed owners and became Gateway International Raceway) and no matter how much we promoted our weekly program, the only spectators that showed up consistantly were the people who came in with the racers. Personally, I love bracket racing or any kind of drag racing, but most people just don't want to take the time to learn what it is all about.
Keystone Bison Dragways in Manitoba has long been gone. Here is a website with a ton of old photos. Some oldys, Warren Johnston, Jungle Jim, Judy Lilly, Wild Willie Borsch, Gary Beck, Don Prudhomme, Tom Hoover. http://www.mts.net/~red67/
Freedomland was not a legal dragstrip.I've raced at 5 of the 7 you listed.I really miss those days hres me in my Mustang racing at dover in about 67 or 68 jimV
National wanted to run a road course also, you can kind of see it with the left hand sweeper turn after the traps.they where going to make the pits or the return road part of it. i do't think they ever used it, but the layout was on the trophys. JimV
I started this thread on Vargo dragway http://ratrodsrule.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8567 I'm surprized no one has mentioned it yet.
Here's a few Google Earth images I posted in the Caddo Mills thread. Caddo Mills, a WWII auxiliary airfield northeast of Dallas: Goleta (at the Santa Barbara airport). The runway was lengthened in the years since the strip was operational. A few of the original buildings at the start line remain and the strip had a one-lane bridge across the canal at the south end: Frederick Army Airfield (WWII), Oklohoma. The strip was east-west on the taxiway at the bottom: Site of the first NHRA Nationals in 1955, Great Bend AAF (WWII), Kansas. I think the strip was the runway at upper left:
Here's what's left of the old Puyallup Dragstrip to the right of the runway at Puyallup airport. Puyallup is just east of Tacoma, WA. Closer look at the starting area at the north end:
My Dad raced there in the 50's/60's, and I raced there in the mid 70's. Saw my first funny car there one day, making an exibition pass-scared the shit outa me! The street it was on was called Dragstrip Road. Wished to hell I'da stole one of those street signs for my wall! I'll have to look for some old pics. -Mike
Drag City in Pocatello Idaho. I believe it first opened in 1952 or 1955. Last operated by Ed "The Outlaw" Jones of Candyland Stage and the Fire Truck wheelstander fame. Lease closed because of leaching from the Simplot plant next to it. I remember people on the freeway stopping to watch the funny cars and jet dragsters till the Highway patrol made them move on I think it was Ed McMullet who went off the end of the track, thru the field and up on the on-ramp in his Hot Wheels FC about the time the funnys were getting over 240mph that ended funnys racing there. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q...33,-112.544289&spn=0.007591,0.012231&t=h&z=16 Am I the only Old Fart here old enough to remember Half Moon Bay? Sand blown to the track from the nearby beach used to really make the first few runs interesting till the cars blew it off the track but I was just a kid back then. Too young to drive but old enough to dream Fremont, O C I R, Lions and Ramona are the ones I really miss most. Never got to see what Big Willie and the L.A.S.R.A. ran at Brotherhood.
ive heard of Riverside race way that closed years ago to make way for a mall. Sad my granfather has pics of when he raced there in the 40's to 50's. Sad
Hawaii Raceway Park closed in 2006. We were there just before it closed. It's a shame that Oahu can't turn loose of some of that unused land to rebuild a place to race. Maybe someday. Kevin Ooltewah Speed Shop
Great thread!!! Windsor Dragway, Windsor Ontario. Video from old 8mm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7fIvigbkTU Paul's cousin owned and operated the track and he spent alot of time there when track was open, he got a bit choked up remembering being out there with family. Concession stand Staging lanes
I just got a flier for the Vargo Dragway, outside of Quakertown Pa.,40th Anniversary of the closing of the strip. Sat/ Nov. 7th 2009. Info Joe Mcnally @ 215-674-3067 or Bob Pessolano 215-672-5394. I ran there in 59-62. Convair Field in Allentown Pa. also had a strip in 55 & 56, still an operating air port. I still have one of the posters from June 5th 1955.
No, another old fart who remembers Half Moon Bay...it was at sea level and right next to the ocean so the cool moist air really made the fuelers run on a good day. Also remember how the noise echoed off the nearby hills. Never raced there but spectated when stationed in Oakland in the Navy, remember Gotelli, Champion Speed Shop, Roy Dunn, John Batto, and a bunch of other Northern California fuelers running there...airport is still open, and the track markings are still there, some of the old timers tried to have a reunion a few years ago, but locals would not permit it.
There is only @ 50 yards of the old Greenvalley strip left. A housing addition has taken it all in. Where the entrance was is now cut thru by a road called North Tarrant Parkway. The shut down lane when right up a small valley between two small hills, which follows right up the backside of 8-10 homes now! Does anyone remember seeing those 18 wheelers trying to negotiate the small Smithfield road to make it in to the strip? They all managed to make it in. One of the signs that when across the bridge is on the wall of a auto shop on Denton Hwy just north of the Discount tire in Keller. The Valley was the place to be on Saturdays!
DOVER DRAG STRIP, Wingdale N.Y. 1961-1976: Here's A video of How Dover Drag Strip looks now...Dover Dover veterans went to track in Nov.08 to see what was left. It is slow moving ...about 21 minutes long but at 9:45 we have a surprise. See "Dover Dragstrip Gone" In 'General Discussion' Heading at our forum for page after page of old and current history and photos. http://www.doverdragstrip.com/video/fieldtrip.wmv<!-- m -->
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