Black Hills Dragway/Dakota Intermountain Dragway (Belle Fourche)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- Larry Kisha set a South Dakota speed mark of 237 MPH in the Odyssey 5 jet dragster in 1977
- Raced
- 1972-91
- State
- South Dakota
- What's left
- You can still spot it in aerial photos, or broken pieces of the track surface remain.
- On the site today
- Strip and oval still visible in aerial photos
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- August 20, 1972 (trial run)
- Track
- 1/4 mile (3,200 feet paved)
- Surface
- Paved
- Location
- About four miles northwest of Belle Fourche on the north side of Highway 212
- People
- F. J. Voyles, incorporator (1972)
- Alex Walk, director (1972)
- Vesta Walk, director (1972)
- Sam Drole, director (1972)
- Pearlette Drole, director (1972)
- Center of the Nation Car Club, builder and race operator (1972-)
- Bill Schneider, owner (1976-78)
- Kevin Voyles, owner (1978-)
- Clay Voyles, track manager (1978-)
- Sanction
- NHRA
- Elevation
- 3,091 ft (942 m)
- Coordinates
- 44.71060, -103.89757
F. J. Voyles filed incorporation papers for the quarter-mile Dakota Intermountain Dragway on March 13, 1972. Confusingly, papers for Black Hills Dragway were filed only a month or so later, with $100,000 in capital stock and directors Alex and Vesta Walk and Sam and Pearlette Drole, all of Belle Fourche. The Center of the Nation Car Club helped build the strip and run the races. It was paved for 3,200 feet and at first had bleachers for 500 and five staging lanes. An NHRA-sanctioned trial run was set for August 20, 1972, and the 1973 season opened on April 30, 1973. Bill Schneider owned the strip from 1976 to spring 1978. On Sunday, June 12, 1977, Larry Kisha broke the South Dakota speed mark with a 237 MPH run in his “Odyssey 5” jet dragster. Kevin Voyles bought the strip from Schneider in June 1978, with Clay Voyles as manager, and in 1986 the Voyles renamed it Dakota Intermountain Dragway. The strip and an oval track still show clearly in aerial photos, about four miles northwest of Belle Fourche on the north side of Highway 212, running alongside the highway.
