Arlington Municipal Airport/Arlington Drag Strip

Drag races ran on the macadam runway at this airport, just outside Marysville and eleven miles north of Everett, from at least 1952. In the early years the Western Washington Timing Association ran them, regularly drawing more than 2,000 people. Roy Berg held the 1953 track record of 104.62 MPH in his dragster. On July 22, 1956, track official Bernard R. Doud, 29, of Seattle, was killed when he ran across the track to put out a fire in one car and was hit by another. By 1961 the NHRA-sanctioned strip was being called Arlington Drag Strip. Racing used two runways at first, cut to one in 1964. Herb McNutt managed the strip in 1966. A two-day program on August 6-7, 1966, featuring a funny car match race between Harold Peterson’s Fairlane and the Scott-Boyd team’s Corvair, warmed up for the two-day Governor’s Trophy Speed Extravaganza on August 20-21. A 1968 issue of the Swedish magazine Start & Strip called it Arlington Timing Association Drag Strip. Racing at the airport ended in 1969.