Amarillo Dragway

History

In May 1959 news reports said work would soon start on a $100,000 drag strip south of Amarillo, a mile west and two miles south of the old helium plant at West Amarillo Blvd. and Helium Road. That spot is about ten miles northwest of where the strip was actually built. The planned opening of June 21, 1959, came and went, and since the strip didn’t open until spring 1960, something likely went wrong with the first site and another had to be found. Organizers Forrest and Ernest Walker planned a 4,000-foot asphalt strip with racing on Saturday nights and Sundays. The first race was on Sunday, May 15, 1960, at today’s location on Burlington Road, about a mile west of Washington Street, on 85 acres with a large turkey farm to the west. It raced every Sunday in 1960 and drew 1,000 to 2,000 fans a week. Ads in 1961 called it the smoothest strip in Texas, and the Texas Panhandle Timing Association ran NHRA-sanctioned races there on the second Sunday that year. The NHRA South Central Divisional Championships on June 29-30, 1963, drew 467 entries and 9,000 spectators on the final day, and five national records and 36 track records fell.