Time Warp Drag Racing
05/20/07 15:14 Filed in: History
If you're the kind of car buff that I am,
then you can't ignore the influence that
drag racing has had on your appreciation
for high performance automobiles. It's also
just an undeniably cool thing to see what
"it'll do" and challenge another car to a
two-lane, straight line speed contest.
We are fortunate to have a first class race track in the Memphis area and have had for many years now. Memphis Motorsports Park was opened in 1986 and serves the purpose of hosting local racing activity and some serious big league racing events from NHRA, NASCAR, USAC, and SCCA. It filled a void after the closure of Lakeland International Raceway in 1979. Lakeland, which opened in 1960, has a storied history that parallels the growth of drag racing from a barely legalized hobby to a counterculture of speed and innovation.
But Lakeland is sadly gone now, and a trip to Memphis Motorsports Park will reveal a mostly polished facilty with heavy corporate influence. If you've been around this stuff for a while, then you can no doubt remember how things used to be, and VIP luxury suites weren't always part of the equation. Not that gowth and change are such a bad thing, but maybe you sometimes wonder if the old ways might have had their own special appeal that is somehow lost among the TV coverage, corporate sponsorships, and the tractor trailer tow rigs.
When I first visited Lakeland as a pup it was a facility that was already over ten years old. I was a recent transplant from the (then) spiritual center of drag racing located in the sprawl that is southern California. I had longed to attend drag races with my older Marine Corp pals at the legendary tracks in the LA area, but it never quite happened until I arrived in Memphis. When I made my way down "Seed Tick Road" to the place where the noise and smoke was, I knew I was home. The sight of nitro funny cars at night permanently altered my view of the world. I was hooked for life. A year later, I went to a rice field in Carlise Arkansas and witnessed a drag race that materialized on an abandoned SAC airstrip. The race was the Arkansas State Championships, and they called the airstrip Carlise Drag-O-Way. Don Garlits and Tommy Ivo introduced me to top fuel dragsters there. The locals raced "gassers" and old A/FX cars. We watched the racing perched upon the hoods of our cars, which were parked along the side of the track and served as substitutes for the non-existent gaurdrails. No amenities anywhere, everything was portable. My how things have changed!
Or have they? While it may be true that "you can't go home again", sometimes it seems that you can get pretty close.
Hidden in the northeastern corner of Arkansas is a place that time has forgotten. Paragould Arkansas is home to George Ray, and in 1961 George opened a drag strip on his farm. He built it his way, and ran it his way, and he still does. He calls it George Ray's Wildcat Hot Rod Dragstrip. It's shorter now (1/8th mile instead of 1/4 mile) but it still has the old phone poles and railroad ties around the starting line, and the steep bleachers that seat about 50 people. they race "heads up", and there's no entry fee to race. You do pay to spectate though. It has no sanctioning body that dictates rules, so George rules the roost. Be aware of the "Enter At Your Own Risk" signs when you arrive as this may be the last place on earth that races quite this way.
Our pals with the Mid-South Mopars have kindly invited the MCCC to attend outings to this portal to another era. Sounds like a solid idea to me. The Mopar guys want to make it a monthly sojourn that will occur regularly on the first Sunday of each month that racing takes place in Paragould. They intend to leave from the parking lot of Southland Greyhound Park in West Memphis in the morning hours and drive in unison to the old time drag strip in the Ozarks. First trip is intended to be June 3rd. Here are the directions to Paragould, but I suspect someone in the group will know the route to the track.
Directions: U.S. 412 east to Ark. 135, turn south for one-fourth mile, then east
Racing on Sunday afternoons on a one-eighth mile strip.
Should be fun and a revelation as to how the sport of sprint has evolved over time. Watch this space for updates as they become available.
LK
We are fortunate to have a first class race track in the Memphis area and have had for many years now. Memphis Motorsports Park was opened in 1986 and serves the purpose of hosting local racing activity and some serious big league racing events from NHRA, NASCAR, USAC, and SCCA. It filled a void after the closure of Lakeland International Raceway in 1979. Lakeland, which opened in 1960, has a storied history that parallels the growth of drag racing from a barely legalized hobby to a counterculture of speed and innovation.
But Lakeland is sadly gone now, and a trip to Memphis Motorsports Park will reveal a mostly polished facilty with heavy corporate influence. If you've been around this stuff for a while, then you can no doubt remember how things used to be, and VIP luxury suites weren't always part of the equation. Not that gowth and change are such a bad thing, but maybe you sometimes wonder if the old ways might have had their own special appeal that is somehow lost among the TV coverage, corporate sponsorships, and the tractor trailer tow rigs.
When I first visited Lakeland as a pup it was a facility that was already over ten years old. I was a recent transplant from the (then) spiritual center of drag racing located in the sprawl that is southern California. I had longed to attend drag races with my older Marine Corp pals at the legendary tracks in the LA area, but it never quite happened until I arrived in Memphis. When I made my way down "Seed Tick Road" to the place where the noise and smoke was, I knew I was home. The sight of nitro funny cars at night permanently altered my view of the world. I was hooked for life. A year later, I went to a rice field in Carlise Arkansas and witnessed a drag race that materialized on an abandoned SAC airstrip. The race was the Arkansas State Championships, and they called the airstrip Carlise Drag-O-Way. Don Garlits and Tommy Ivo introduced me to top fuel dragsters there. The locals raced "gassers" and old A/FX cars. We watched the racing perched upon the hoods of our cars, which were parked along the side of the track and served as substitutes for the non-existent gaurdrails. No amenities anywhere, everything was portable. My how things have changed!
Or have they? While it may be true that "you can't go home again", sometimes it seems that you can get pretty close.
Hidden in the northeastern corner of Arkansas is a place that time has forgotten. Paragould Arkansas is home to George Ray, and in 1961 George opened a drag strip on his farm. He built it his way, and ran it his way, and he still does. He calls it George Ray's Wildcat Hot Rod Dragstrip. It's shorter now (1/8th mile instead of 1/4 mile) but it still has the old phone poles and railroad ties around the starting line, and the steep bleachers that seat about 50 people. they race "heads up", and there's no entry fee to race. You do pay to spectate though. It has no sanctioning body that dictates rules, so George rules the roost. Be aware of the "Enter At Your Own Risk" signs when you arrive as this may be the last place on earth that races quite this way.
Our pals with the Mid-South Mopars have kindly invited the MCCC to attend outings to this portal to another era. Sounds like a solid idea to me. The Mopar guys want to make it a monthly sojourn that will occur regularly on the first Sunday of each month that racing takes place in Paragould. They intend to leave from the parking lot of Southland Greyhound Park in West Memphis in the morning hours and drive in unison to the old time drag strip in the Ozarks. First trip is intended to be June 3rd. Here are the directions to Paragould, but I suspect someone in the group will know the route to the track.
Directions: U.S. 412 east to Ark. 135, turn south for one-fourth mile, then east
Racing on Sunday afternoons on a one-eighth mile strip.
Should be fun and a revelation as to how the sport of sprint has evolved over time. Watch this space for updates as they become available.
LK
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