Forum: Oklahomatidbits.com General Forum (go)
Moderators:  /  David Smith Jr

Oklahoma City does not want any racing facility.

Does anyone remember the dragstrip on the State Fairgrounds?

It ran East to West and was located directly north of the railroad tracks in an area that is now premier paved paid parking. It was historic enough to hold the NHRA US Nationals in 1957 and 1958. Check the links below.

http://www.hdeshazo.com/okla1957/okla_drags_pg_0001.htm

http://www.nhra.net/50th/news/index.html?story=249

The Fair Board in their supposed best judgement, built the Norick Arena in the shutdown area which eventually and subsequently shut down a piece of history. Nothing has changed except the years.

Thank you for the information, I'm like you I don't believe the city will really help us build another track and I also have doubts of a serious electrical problem. The 400K has to be for unnecessary underground wire, if so; overhead wire would only be 75K and thats if it really needs fixed.

Thanks, Charles

Can't help but notice the crowd in this picture and older pictures of Fairgrounds Speedway. Too bad times have changed and there are more things to do in some peoples society.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

That's a good photo with the grandstands in the background.

I forgot to mention that directly East, on the other side of May Avenue, was at that time, the ultra modern Venture Discount Center. Now it is part of the lumber yard.

Yes and it was at the end of the strip in the very beginning. It was also the shutdown area if you didn't use or have brakes. Some guy from Tulsa did just that and ended up in the lumber yards parking lot. So, they turned around and went towards the area where the arena is now.

Hope it don't repeat it's self like the other tracks that closed.

JIMMY MINTER 'AKA'dirtrack234                  
Yesterday 
is history, 
tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That is 
why they call it the present.

Read the story and scroll down and click on the radio, footage from 1957 at SFS Jaycees Dragstrip,

Bud Carsons first automotive racing venture,

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=2254

"NEVER QUIT" it all stops with YOU, if you allow it.

I don't remember it ever running West to East but of course I've slept a couple times since then. It was a real bitch driving into the setting sun.

I do remember one of the Wilson brothers was piloting a dragster one time that went out of control and hit one of the light poles. One of his front wheels cleared both the high line wires and the railroad tracks and embankment on the south side.

The way I remember it is that it ran east to west and parallel to the RR tracks.

I used to ride my bike from 47th and Classen to the Fairground. The only names I remember are Jimmy Nix, Al Carter, and Kenny Caster. If I remember right, Al Carter crashed his AA Fuel Roadster, they took the engine out and put it in Jimmy Nix's dragster and he set the national record at about 175.

Kenny Caster had a Chevy convertible. I think it was a 57.

Does anybody remember Lyman Kidwell from Lawton in his gasser?

Mike

I got that info from Hank Malone, one of the original hot rodders out there. I guess he was there before there was even a buzz about the goings on.

There was also a guy named John LeGrange that ras a C/A pickup truck that was competive out there, . How about Cody and Don Parr, the Smith brothers, Frank & Charlie, Blackie Goforth? They cut their teeth there. We could go on & on.

My parents lived at Ardmore until 1959-1960. I rememeber them talking about coming up here to the drag races @ the fairgrounds.

My Dad always mentioned seeing the "Green Monster" run there.

I asked Mom about it today & she remembered that also.

The dragster on May Ave definitely happened (I recounted the same story on the Racing From the Past board.) I think we've all embellished it a little so I checked my facts with my dad (who witnessed it) and the truth was the dragster was hung up in the cable fence and didn't actually make it onto the street. It was a travelling dragster from Connecticut named "Damn Yankee".

Mike, you are correct, Kenny Castor was a 57 Chevy convertible fan. The best story I've heard about him was about the "specially" published copy of the NHRA rule book. Kenny had a knack for "bending" the rules and any of you that dealt with the NHRA back in the day know they were sticklers for stock class rules. Kenny ran convertibles which had a heavy X-member in the frame that the hardtops and sedans didn't have (for rigidity). Kenny cut the X-member out, saving 300+ pounds, and then literally re-wrote a rulebook stating that Chevy built a limited number of racing only convertibles without the X-member. Great stuff.

Nix was the best. They begged Nix to drive Cliff Armstrong's National Record Holding A/Roadster one time. Nix finally agreed just to shut them up. As they watched the car run down the track it started to swerve back and forth through the traps. Cliff's roadster always tracked straight as an arrow, so everyone was worried that something was broken. When they got down to Nix with the push truck they asked what the hell was wrong and Jimmy simply replied that he "got bored." How do you get bored in 9 seconds? Cliff later sold the roadster to Charlie Smith and then later Dad bought it from Charlie.

As I mentioned on the other board, if you remember the timing clock that Bud used to have on the bandstand, it was the clock and speed traps that he used when promoting drag races.

I miss them all.

HM

I know it is not in a drag car but in a pulling tractor but I have a video of Art Arfons somewhere in storage. It was with him and his daughter.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands 
in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he 
stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Erich Petersen