Ardmore Dragway (Springer)

History

Ardmore Dragway’s website claims it’s the oldest continually run drag strip in America, dating itself to 1955, when the Slow Pokes car club built a strip. That strip was in Lake Murray State Park, a few miles southeast of Ardmore, not at the current site a mile south of Springer and nine miles north of Ardmore. Even using 1955, several strips still running in 2015 are older, including Redding Dragstrip in California (1951), Beech Bend Raceway in Kentucky (1951), Thorn Hill in Kentucky (1953) and Greer Dragway in South Carolina (1954). The track didn’t respond when asked about this.

A thorough search of the Daily Ardmoreite found the first report of drag racing at the old airport south of Springer on June 17, 1962, for a regional meet with entries from Oklahoma City, Shawnee, Ada, McAlester and Ardmore. The report said Jess Mitchell of Ardmore won top eliminator before one of the largest crowds ever at the regional races at the strip north of town, so there had been races there before, probably first sometime between 1958 and 1961. Even taking 1958, dozens of running strips are older. The Slow Pokes raced at Lake Murray in 1955 and 1956, and the paper mentioned the strip several times in 1957 but never about racing. The 1962 articles don’t tie the Slow Pokes to the Springer strip, though a 1965 mention does, so they may have been involved from the start without public credit.

The regional meet’s losers had a grudge race on June 24, 1962, and Texas and Oklahoma racers met for a district championship on July 8, where Dennis Lavers won Super Stock in his ‘62 Impala. On August 26, 1962, 1,200 spectators saw Bob Bolton of Tishomingo win top eliminator in his Ford. Electronic timing was first used on March 10, 1963, and the asphalt track was lengthened to 3,000 feet for 1965. Pro Stock driver Lee Shepherd was killed there on March 11, 1985, while practicing for the Gatornationals.