Alta Airport (Orosi)

Nothing left

Raced: 1957-59
State: California
What's left: The site was never redeveloped, but every trace of the strip has been removed.
Raced on: An airport runway
First race: 1957 (earliest recalled)
Track: 3,300-foot runway
Surface: Possibly paved in the late 1950s, or oiled dirt
Location: Alta Airport, 3 to 4 miles east of Dinuba between Sultana and Orosi
Elevation: 364 ft (111 m)
Coordinates: 36.54133, -119.31742

Very little is known about the drag races at Alta Airport, 3 to 4 miles east of Dinuba between Sultana and Orosi. It wasn’t a military field but was likely built during the war. Accounts of the surface conflict: it may have been paved in the late 1950s, which allowed drag racing, or it may have been just an oiled 3,300-foot dirt runway. A race was held on Sunday, January 18, 1959, where Carl Rollins won A Roadster in his “Tinker Toy” with 13.86 at 109.45 mph. One old-timer remembered his first visit to an organized drag strip at Alta in 1957, when he tried to run the family’s 1947 Chevy farm pickup and blew the granny-gear four-speed.

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