Atco Dragway/Raceway
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Atco International Raceway
- Art Arfons won a $1,000 bounty for the first 200 MPH run there, 201.78 MPH in May 1962
- Kentucky Derby jockey Bill Hartack raced a Chrysler 300 there in June 1960
- Closed mid-season in July 2023 after 63 years
- Raced
- 1960-2023
- State
- New Jersey
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- On the site today
- Sold for redevelopment as an automobile auction facility
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- May 30, 1960
- Last race
- July 2023
- Location
- Jackson Road, Atco
- People
- Paul Jaffe, builder and owner (1960)
- Paul B. Katz, builder and partner (1960-67)
- Edwin Rosner, builder and owner (1960)
- Lester M. Medvene, builder and owner (1960)
- South Jersey Timing Association, race supervisor (1960)
- Leonard Capone Jr., final owner (to 2023)
- Sanction
- AHRA, IHRA, NHRA
- Elevation
- 94 ft (29 m)
- Coordinates
- 39.77983, -74.82771
In April 1960 newspapers reported a drag strip going up on Jackson Road in Atco, built by Camden-area businessmen Paul Jaffe, Paul B. Katz, Edwin Rosner and Lester M. Medvene. The South Jersey Timing Association was formed to oversee the racing. The track opened May 30, 1960, with remarks by Atco mayor Frank Shram and Miss Atco Dragway, Kathy Connors. About 1,500 people watched more than 200 cars in 38 classes. Joe Jacono won Top Eliminator at 10.02 and 138.88 MPH in his Buick-powered A dragster, Bill Pyle took Middle Eliminator and George Wheeler Little Eliminator. Hot Rod’s August 1960 list of NHRA tracks said racing would run every Sunday and, starting June 8, every Wednesday night. On June 19, 1960, Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Bill Hartack ran a souped-up Chrysler 300 at 16.01 and 86.08 MPH. More than 500 cars from seventeen states were expected for the NHRA Eastern Regional Championships on July 3-4, 1960.
Connie Swingle drove Don Garlits’ car at Atco in 1961, on a strip Garlits remembered as bumpy. The track offered $1,000 to the first driver to top 200 MPH there, and Art Arfons collected in May 1962 with 201.78 MPH in his Cyclops jet dragster. Racing ran every Sunday. Atco was AHRA sanctioned in 1965. In 1967 partner Paul Katz was found dead in his car in the woods behind the strip, a suicide. The name changed to Atco International Raceway in 1977, when it switched from NHRA to IHRA.
Atco shut down for good in the middle of the 2023 season, in July. Final owner Leonard Capone Jr. had accepted an offer from an Illinois company that planned to turn the 180-acre site into a car auction facility. The closing ended 63 years of racing and left Island Dragway as New Jersey’s only drag strip.
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