Sunday at Oswego Dragstrip....last week!

So a week or two ago Club members Al, Kevin and I drove out to the old Oswego Dragway. The property was used as a tree nursery for some years but now its just trees growing wild and even on top of parts of the track. There are more photos than this but some have been left out to protect the guilty
This first shot is from the elicated start line on the south end of the track. you can see the weeds and trees growing in the dirt built up on the track

this next shot is at about the 1/8 mile mark

this is whats ledt of the bathroom and structures behind the east grand stands

these next 2 are looking from the finish line towards the start


in this shot you can just make out the center line paint

Here is the old finish line visible where the asphat is chipped up. the later finish line is about 10 yarsd south of this.

another start line shot

 

Thanks for posting.

 

Heard about that place from many people that were there in the day. Could you hear ghostly sounds in the distant of hemis and other old race car sounds?

Thanks for the pics.

 

I spent every Sunday after church at that track. My dad would drop us off at the gate with a dollar at 1:00 and pick us up at 7pm. There are lot of old Drag cars still around this area. The land behind my house is now built up with houses but it once had the cinder block garage that housed a front engine dragster that dominated the track in the late 60's. There is an active racer still living in Oswego area that has now gotten his daughters into racing and even won the High School Drag championship at Indy a few years ago.
Lots of history around this area from that track. It launched a lot of Speed Shops around here. I am happy to say I was there and still have a lot of friends that raced and still race to this day. Here is a web site to an old Oswego Racer that has never lost the sprit and races 3 days a week every week and a great guy to know for chassis work.
http://rkracing.home.comcast.net/~rkracing/

 

Spent a few weekends out there in the early 60's. Last time was at the Don Maynard Memorial Meet, the day Mike Marinoff crashed his Willys.

 

Really sad to see the drag strips going to the weeds!

 

Here are a few of the fliers that used to be placed on the windows of the cars promoting the next weeks event. These are from 1961 through 68 I believe.
The Guzzler was the dragster that was in the garage behind my house, I think it was named by the guys who did the drinking and the wrenching on the car. I stored my cars in that same garage for about 10 years you could still see the history on the walls of that building until they tore it down in 2000.
Any one remember that car? Bud and John are around and building killer HotRods still today.

 

Thanks for this post, I remember those ads. Bud, Don & John's Guzler (misspelled on one flyer, correctly on another) was a local legend. I think it was John Kranneberg who passed away. Are Bud Roche (wasn't he a florist?) and Don Mattison still active?

 

How long has the track been dormant? Is it still a rural area?

 

Ran there a little in:
'58'-'59 babbitt pounder '50 Chevy Fleetline (the falst car was a flathead Caddy coupe. "Lead Sled"?)
'67 Honda motorcycle
'73 '70 Nova coupe (maybe that's why later in it's life it had a cracked rear spring and broken motor mount)

Days gone by....

 

picture taken at Oswego Drag Safari, June 30 to July 1, 1956. Two REAR ENGINE dragsters waiting for push start behind the starting line (short staging lanes).

 

Hooligans!

 

Sunday at Oswego
I would go when I could
Remember seeing Art Afrons Jet car absolutely unreal

a few links

http://www.ledgersentinel.com/article.asp?a=3817


http://www.oswegodragway.com/

http://dragreunion.homestead.com/

 

No..... I think it was Bud Lacky, John Hambly, and Don ? not sure of Don,s last name they built the car in Eddie Webster's Garage here in Montgomery. Bud was also known as Shorty he moved to Southern Illinois and builds some nice street cars , John is in Oswego Plainfield area and has a killer yellow 33 ford 3 window.

 

Oswego dragstrip was my dad's home away from home in his youth. Its a shame to see old tracks Oswego and US 30 waisting away.

 

anyone got more pics of oswego back in the day?

 

Spent a lot of time at Oswego and US 30.. Also sports cars at Meadowdale which has become a park and will keep the old water tower..and some other facets of better days..

Seems like yesterday I was waiting to run my '57 Vette at "we go"..

 

Google U.S. 30 dragstrip,checkout the T-Shirt post,also a rumor it may come back?

 

Oswego closed after a developer bought farm land around the track and started putting apartment buildings in. Then the tenants started complaining about the noise from the strip on weekends. the city council snivelling whiners that they were, sided with the tenants and developer. They forced the track to close. That was back in the in the late 70's

 

its a shame some day all the little tracks will be gone

 

Raced there, along with U S 30 and byron. Personal highlight was racing Don Carlton in the Motown Missle in the early days of pro stock.Acid dipped, titanium, and lots of other exotic stuff we never saw before. Oh ya, we got beat that day.

 

I have some video of the track made from a 8 mm camera from 1968 or later and a few pictures around here I will see if I can find them.

 

the last time I saw pictures of this old track you could still see the NHRA logo painted at the starting line. is it gone?

 

i think Rt.30 has the nhra logo and is still there

 

I grow up a mile way from the track dam it was so cool to ride my bike over and watch, heres some pics

 

Thats cool busch! we have a section with drag cars and oswego memorabilia at our car show in june. you should check it out

 

Oswego Dragstrip was a great place to start racing and, I started racing there in 1963 with a C/Gas dragster then to a AA/Fuel Dragster...It was like a party every Sunday with friends...

 

wow I think this is what they call resurecting an old thread, saw this Sat but just now posting... I think the cool thing about that area is that as a team on tour for the summer we could base in Chicago and run at US 30, Alton, Rockford, Oswego, Great Lakes and be back in Chicago at the end of the day, almost like being at home in So Cal. sad to see what has become of many of those old tracks of course all the So cal are even less visable...I think that is why we love the Eagle Field deal, even though its style predates my racing days, it still reminds us of a time when drag racing was much simpler and just fun...

 

I know this thread is a bit dated, but I wanted to clarify something. One of the posters mentioned that the track had closed because of noise problems and the city. This isn't correct. I grew up in Lynwood subdivision one corn field away from the track and spent many years listening to the sounds and watching the races. The track closed in the late 70's maybe in 80 because the track was to short for the power of the cars. The owners couldn't get more land to expand the track and it was getting to dangerous.