Abandoned drag srtip east of Phoenix

[427TJ]

Kingdon drag strip, just southwest of Lodi, California was built as an military auxiliary landing airfield during WWII. As with so many such airstrips, Kingdon lapsed into disuse after the war and then became a public airport and a drag strip by the early 1950s. Racing ended at Kingdon in 1978 but in 2007 Kingdon was host to a reunion drag event so perhaps one of the old strips will be back in use, if only on rare occasions.

Located north of Stockton, southwest of Lodi:



Very little has changed since WWII:



Looking west:



The Sacramento-based "Glass Slipper" made appearances at Kingdon in the late '50s:





As did Garlits in '59 on his first trip to California:



Even car customizer Gene Winfield tried his hand at the Kingdon drags in the early '50s:



Back in those much simpler times when any working man could race a car as a weekend hobby and not go broke just trying to have some fun:





Tommy Ivo at Kingdon c1970 with one of his Cadillac push cars: