Abernathy Municipal Airport
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Tri-City Drag Strip
- NHRA withdrew its sanction in 1959 over improper proceedings
- Raced
- 1958-60
- State
- Texas
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- An airport runway
- First race
- possibly April 5, 1959
- Surface
- Runway
- Location
- Runway of the Abernathy airport
- People
- Tri-City Drag Association, sponsor (1959)
- Sanction
- NHRA
- Elevation
- 3,323 ft (1,013 m)
- Coordinates
- 33.84437, -101.76027
Drag races ran on the runway at the Abernathy airport every second Sunday in 1958 and every fourth Sunday in 1959, under NHRA sanction by 1959 if not earlier. Admission was $1. One of the first races, possibly the very first, was on April 5, 1959. The Tri-City Drag Association sponsored the fourth-Sunday races, and Car Craft called the strip Tri-City Drag Strip in July 1959. The airport was built as an auxiliary airfield in 1943 and given to the city for civilian use after the war. At the August 23, 1959, race the top eliminator won a pair of racing slicks, middle eliminator a Bell helmet and little eliminator a set of traction masters, all donated by Lee Christian of Lubbock. By at least October 1959 NHRA had taken away the strip’s sanction over what was called improper proceedings.
More in Texas
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- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Bergstrom Air Force Base (Austin) 1954
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Big Bend Drag Strip (Alpine) 1968
- Status unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found. Brazos Valley Raceway (Mineral Wells) 1964-68