Abandoned drag srtip east of Phoenix

[427TJ]

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Update: USGS topographical map showing exact location and orientation of the strip:

[427TJ]

Located 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, Riverside Raceway opened in September 1957 with a road course and a drag strip. Known more for its road course, Riverside did host the 1964 Hot Rod Magazine Championship Drag Races and some of the August '64 magazine coverage is shown below. Cancerous urban sprawl finally made its way out to Riverside by the 1980s and the track succumbed to the relentless spread of stucco in 1989.

Located east of the intersection of two freeways, 395 and 60, and just north of March Air Force Base:



USGS topo map image:



Drag strip, shown in orange at bottom, ran toward the north:



HRM August 1964 coverage:













Grandstands on west side of track, which can be seen running under the bridge at far right:



Top Fuel winner Jack Williams (8.13), far side, defeated Tony Waters who fouled:



1965 photo showing a new GT 350 with the starting line of the strip in the background. View looks east:



The stucco monster finally gobbles up Riverside in this 1988 photo from Wikipedia. View looks east:

[427TJ]

Great photo of a Dart funny behind the tower at Fontana c66. Photo taken looking north and the grandstands are clearly visible:

[427TJ]

Irwindale operated from 1965 until 1977 when the city forced its closure to make room for a Miller Beer brewery. Today's Toyota Raceway at Irwindale, with its 1/8-mile strip and oval, is west of original track site.

New Irwindale 1/8-mile strip location at left and original Irwindale site at right, now a brewery. San Gabriel was just a few miles to the southwest of old Irwindale. Imagine that, two historic dragstrips just a few miles apart! Those guys had it good.









Photo from Jungle Pam's site:

[427TJ]

Carlsbad raceway was just north of San Diego and operated from 1964 until 2004. The Google Earth image shows the track still intact but it has since been completely obliterated by yet another business park. Like we need another frigging business park.



You can see the cancer moving in from the south, the east and the north:

[Dog427435]

In the sixties there were 3 drag strips on Long Island, the oldest, West Hampton opened in 1953
and closed in 2003. Islip an 1/8 mile track was around from 1961 - 1972. Both were great tracks,
Hampton was always my favorite, but the track with the most hype and hoopla was
New York National Speedway. It hosted the National Events, drew all the biggest names,
heck they used to run cars 4 wide in the lower classes!
National Speedway is long gone, racing from March of '66 until October of 1980.
An Active Adult Community now resides where the strip once was.
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The circled area was the staging and starting lanes. The track ran south to north.
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This is how the staging / starting lanes look today.
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This is the strip!!
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This is how it used to look - Every weekend!!
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Like I said, all the biggest names!
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The pictures of the deserted staging lanes / Harrell's funny car and Nikki Phillips are from Bee-On Video's
Drag Racing on Long Island DVD, a GREAT 90 minute trip back in time!!
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[427TJ]

Bad-ass Austin!

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Love the cut wheel arches on that Belvedere!



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[427TJ]

Located along what is now I-10 just west of the town of Colton in western San Bernardino County California, Morrow Field was a small airport used as the Colton Dragstrip. Morrow Field was built in 1942 and by the mid-1950s the runway was being used on weekends for drag racing. When an airplane wanted to land or take-off during the races the drag action would be halted to allow the aircraft to use the runway. By 1980 the USGS topo map showed Morrow Field as abandoned and the land was sold-off for development. For more info on Morrow Field, click here: http://members.tripod.com/airfields_...rnardino_W.htm

Note Fontana Drag City to the west of Colton:





Looking closely, the diagonal orientation of the old Morrow Field runway/dragstrip can still be seen:



1954 USGS map showing the highway as 2-lanes each way:



1980 USGS showing Morrow Field as "abandoned." The golf course was built by the orignal airport developer, a Mr. Morrow, for which Morrow Field was named:



Found this photo on the HAMB. View looks east: