My wife bought an old box of canning jars at an estate sale this weekend. This morning I pulled out the newspaper page that was lining the bottom of the box. Hartford Times - January 26, 1959. Funnies on one side and TV listings and TV repair ads on the other side. Also a few short articles, one of them covered the up coming zoning meeting for the drag strip. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
How cool! I’ll bet Mr Marratta didn’t face half the opposition he would be facing today! Being a life long west coaster I only know of Frank from magazine coverage of his coupe, it’s good to see coverage of his other involvement. He’s another early hero in our hobby. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
If you note in the article, he's going before the Colchester Board. They eventually said "no", in part because of the expected traffic it would draw. He had another parcel of property just over the boarder in East Haddam, who didn't have a problem with him building the track. Of course, the easiest access (unless you really wanted unpaved roads) was through Colchester. East Haddam got the tax money, Colchester got the traffic. (Source: life-long Colchester resident. I grew up within hearing distance of the track.)
The Connecicut Dragway was always referred to as being in Colchester, but in reality it was in East Haddam. I worked with a member of the East Haddam zoning board, and he told me that if it were to come before the zoning board now, ( 1983 ) it would not be approved. I am familiar with the unpaved roads as that is how I left the dragstrip to avoid the traffic getting to route 16.
What does get approved in CT nothing state sucks was a tax Haven for the rich a play ground for them nestled right between NY and Boston. Now what is it? Nothing they should smarten up and turn the old airport in Waterford into a drag strip so theres something here.
The Jalopy Journal
