Big Sky Dragway/Spike Naranche Memorial Dragway/Lost Creek Raceway (Anaconda)

Active

Club-run eighth-mile strip on Galen Road east of Anaconda in southwest Montana, active since 1966 under several names and now called Lost Creek Raceway. It runs NHRA Summit, MDRA state points and gambler races and is a stop on Big Sky Race Week.

Dedicated by Governor Tim Babcock on September 4, 1966
Evel Knievel performed there early in his career in October 1966
Renamed for Butte contractor Spike Naranche

Raced: 1966-present
State: Montana
Raced on: Built as a drag strip
First race: July 10, 1966
Sanction: NHRA Division 6
Track: 1/8 mile
Surface: Asphalt
Address: 595 Galen Rd
Anaconda, MT 59711
People: Silver Bow Timing Association, builder and operator (1963-)
Lost Creek Racing Association, operator (1986-)
Elevation: 5,427 ft (1,654 m)
Coordinates: 46.01522, -112.63438
Contact: lostcreek-raceway.com (406) 498-3894

Big races

Ultimate Gambler

Mid-August (10th annual, Aug 15-16, 2026) · big-money bracket

Two-day gambler race paying $10,000 each day, with a junior dragster and junior street version.

Event page

MT vs ID Shootout

July (18th annual, July 18, 2026) · team bracket

Long-running team shootout between Montana and Idaho bracket racers.

Event page

Flathead Valley Shootout / Smelter City Shootout

Late July (18th annual, July 25, 2026) · bracket

Annual shootout pairing Flathead Valley racers against the home crowd.

Event page

Rocky Mountain Nationals

Late May (Memorial Day weekend) · bracket

Season-opening holiday weekend race that also counts for MDRA state points.

Event page

Street Diesel Throwdown and Small Tire No Prep

June (diesel) and September (no prep) · diesel / no-prep

Diesel truck drag event in early summer and a small-tire no-prep race in the fall.

Event page

Big Sky Race Week

Raced here 2024, 2025, 2026; next listed June 11–18, 2027 · drag-and-drive

A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.

Event page

History

After it lost the Butte Airport in 1963, the Silver Bow Timing Association bought land in the Brown’s Gulch area, two miles east of Anaconda near the Deer Lodge-Warm Springs Highway cutoff. It hoped to build there after the snow melted and open in May or June 1964, at a cost of about $20,000, with a track 65 feet wide and six-tenths of a mile long. No work happened in 1964. In 1966 members voted to rename Big Sky Dragway for Spike Naranche, a Butte contractor who died that year. The asphalt track opened for a grudge race on July 10, 1966, and the grand opening was July 31. Governor Tim Babcock dedicated the quarter-mile strip on Sunday, September 4, 1966, when 97 racers from four states ran for 65 trophies before 1,000 spectators. Races ran every other Sunday, and Evel Knievel performed stunts there early in his career on October 30, 1966.

Racing continued at a low level through the late 1960s, the 1970s and into the 1980s, and newspapers just called it the drag strip in Anaconda, well behind other Montana strips. In fall 1986 the Lost Creek Racing Association started weekly races, drawing about 25 racers and 300 spectators. Those races were very basic, run on a half mile with a flagman start, no entry fees, liability waivers and no bleachers.

The land was leased by a local rancher from the Mount Haggin Ranch Company, so the group was wary of making big improvements without a guarantee it could stay. A new strip cost too much, so it asked the Anaconda-Deer Lodge Commission for $5,000 for equipment and upgrades. The commission offered $1,500 if the group signed a long-term lease with the owners. The club took out a $10,000 loan for the rest, began monthly races with cash purses and advertising, and got NHRA sanction, which brought far more racers and fans. By 1988 it had bought more land hoping to lengthen the strip to a quarter mile. That didn’t happen, but the track kept doing well with strong local business sponsorship. Lost Creek Raceway still runs as an NHRA eighth-mile strip.