Big Horn Dragway (Greybull)

The first drag race at South Big Horn County Airport in Greybull, on Sunday, March 31, 1963, drew almost 3,000 people. That interest led to the forming of the Northern Wyoming Timing Association, with Allen Collingwood as strip manager. More races followed on April 28 and on June 8 as part of the annual Days of ‘49 celebration, and the track had NHRA sanction by the June 30 race. An FAA official was among the 2,500 at that race, and he left convinced drag racing should stop, saying it interfered with landing planes and damaged the runway. The FAA pulled permission for the July 28 race. A Greybull delegation met with FAA officials in Denver in mid-July, and the agency agreed to allow racing. At the next race, August 4, Skip Kent of Bozeman won top eliminator at 13.04 seconds in his Ford coupe, and Dick Blee of Billings ran the day’s best ET of 12.56 in his A dragster. At the season finale on September 29, 1,500 spectators saw Wayne Seymour of Casper win top eliminator. Races ran monthly in 1964. At the last race of 1965, on September 5, before 2,500 fans, Ron Leslie in the Kenz-Leslie Special beat Jerry Wilson in the Sprickler-Wilson AA/FD in a best-of-three match between two Denver cars, though Wilson had the best time at 8.06 seconds and 193.54 MPH. On August 6, 1967, Ernest Sprickler set a track and Wyoming record of 201.34 MPH. Red Lindsey was strip manager by 1967 and still in 1968, and nothing has turned up after that year.