Albuquerque Dragway
ActiveActive Still racing today.
Also known as New Mexico Dragway; Mayberry Dragway; Roadrunner Dragway; New Mexico Motorsports Park; Albuquerque National Dragway
A long-running NHRA Division 7 strip in the South Valley of Albuquerque, on land leased from the State of New Mexico. It runs bracket points racing and popular call-out grudge nights.
- Don Garlits match raced track record holder Ray Maurel on November 6, 1966
- John Paxson's rocket dragster ran 326 MPH in exhibition in 1973
- Lightning hit the tower twice during an August 1973 points meet
- Raced
- 1964-present
- State
- New Mexico
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- May 3, 1964
- Sanction
- NHRA Division 7
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Surface
- Asphalt
- Address
- 5700 Dragway Rd SE
Albuquerque, NM 87105 - People
- New Mexico Timing Association, builder and leaseholder (1961-)
- Dale Schafer, promoter and manager (ca. 1966-75)
- Ed Martinez, leaseholder and operator (1975)
- J.C. Harris, leaseholder and operator (1975)
- Bob Labbate, operator (ca. 1979)
- Elevation
- 5,294 ft (1,614 m)
- Coordinates
- 35.00770, -106.61191
Big races
All Out Call Out
Call-out grudge racing nights that sell tickets only in advance, with no sales at the gate.
Bracket points series
Track points racing in Super Pro, Pro and Sportsman classes with season champions crowned each year.
Sick 66
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
History
The New Mexico Timing Association spent years trying to get a drag strip in Albuquerque. Races had been held on city streets with official approval, but that wasn’t good enough, and racers kept pressing city officials for help. In mid-May 1961 the city commission agreed to sublease 51 acres of state-owned land to the association, south of Kirtland Air Force Base near the police academy on Los Picaros Road off Broadway. Two years later nothing had been built, and the offer had shrunk to forty acres leased from the city at $1 a year. Plans called for an asphalt strip 1,300 feet long and 60 feet wide, with fencing, grandstands and concessions, paid for by bond sales. $18,000 in bonds had sold by March 1963, and by June the money was in hand. Still, by September no dirt had moved at the not-for-profit track, so Hot Rod’s August 1963 listing of races on the first and third Sundays was premature.
The first race finally ran May 3, 1964, before two hundred racers and several thousand spectators. On July 5, 1964, Bob Pavioni won top eliminator at 132.93 MPH, and George Brazil ran exhibitions in his fuel dragster with a best of 172.74. Races ran twice a month. In 1965 papers and ads called it New Mexico Dragway. On November 6, 1966, Don Garlits match raced Ray Maurel, driver of the Fisher-Greth SpeedSport dragster and holder of the 203.6 MPH track record. Hot Rod called it Mayberry Dragway, NHRA sanctioned, in January 1969. The track held its first NHRA divisional points race in 1972. At an August 1973 WCS points meet, two lightning strikes hit the tower and knocked out the PA and clocks, so winners were decided by the quickest times run so far. John Paxson’s rocket dragster ran 326 MPH in exhibition.
Promoter and manager Dale Schafer sold his interest in 1975 after nine years, and he later said the bonds were paid off in 1974. Ed Martinez and J.C. Harris took over the city lease, and Bob Labbate began running the track around 1979. It was Roadrunner Dragway in 1981-83 and New Mexico Motorsports Park in 1984-86. The land, held by the state in trust for the University of New Mexico, was a constant issue, and in 1986 the strip closed for several months over a planned housing development that never happened. It became Albuquerque National Dragway in 1992, kept that name through at least 2007, and later went back to Albuquerque Dragway.
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