Beechmont Dragway (Cincinnati)

Plans for Beechmont Dragway, a privately owned quarter-mile near Cincinnati, went back to 1954, and the Greater Cincinnati Safety Council loudly opposed it. The Cincinnati Timing Association and Southern Ohio Timing Association sold bonds and staged autorama car shows to pay for it. Bond sales fell well short of the $50,000 needed for paving, so only the quarter-mile racing section was paved and the shutdown was left as oiled dirt. The strip was on Pennsylvania Avenue, north of the Beechmont levee and the Lunken Airport Playfield.

It opened Sunday, July 14, 1957, with 164 competitors and 2,500 spectators, and trophies went to winners in 16 of 24 possible classes. The announcer had to wait for the dust to clear before calling winners, and organizers hoped the crowd would soon pay for paving the shutdown. On September 1, 1957, Richard Louda was killed when his car overturned at the end of the track at about 125 mph. Police closed the strip, but an investigation cleared it and Sunday racing resumed.

In mid-1958 Zimmerman & Adler Construction Company bought the track from the Southern Ohio Timing Association. They paved it out to 3,500 feet for a paved shutdown, enlarged spectator parking and built a paved return road. From about 1959 to 1961 it ran NHRA-sanctioned races every Sunday. On September 13, 1959, a horse raced a drag car to draw a crowd. Gordon Collett set the track record of 170.13 mph on August 7, 1960. On September 11, 1961, a Cincinnati judge ordered the strip closed for good as a nuisance to neighbors. In July 1962 the 50-acre property was sold to Joseph Bove, a Rambler dealer.