Abilene Municipal Airport

The Key City Saints, an Abilene car club, started running drag races at the old Abilene Municipal Airport in 1954. The first race with known details was on September 19, 1954, with drivers expected from Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, and that year it was one of five NHRA-sanctioned strips in Texas. The airport dated to the 1930s and had four concrete runways by the mid-1940s, but it was abandoned by 1954, when the new municipal airport opened to the south. The Abilene Zoo now sits on the site.

In 1955 the 20-member Key City Timing Association ran the races, drawing about 40 cars to its May 15 meet and collecting entry donations at the gate. The Abilene Police Department had a policy of not sponsoring outside groups but unofficially favored the program. In May 1956 the Stockers and Road Angels car clubs sponsored races every Sunday on the northeast runway, however hot it got, and the Key City Timing Association carried on with Sunday racing that fall. On November 25, 1956, racing moved from the northeast runway, which was timed over only .2 mile, to another runway so it would fit NHRA’s policy of sanctioning only quarter-mile tracks. The new strip was on land a farmer leased from the city, and he allowed racing there as long as it was only on Sundays. The Road Angels, Stockers and Road Jokers, all YMCA-sponsored hot rod clubs, ran those races. Telephone poles, railroad ties and other debris were scattered across the old runway to stop racing on it. In April 1957 Abilene’s Park and Recreation Board, which now owned the old airport, let the Key City Timing Association race on the north-south runway, but said the deal was temporary because it planned to turn the area into a park. Jerry Berdien set a track record of 15.2 seconds in his C/G 1957 Corvette on April 14, 1957. Races were timed with stopwatches until August 18, 1957, when gate receipts paid for Chrondek timing equipment. By 1960 the Key City Saints were racing at the old Tye Air Base.