Brazos Valley Raceway (Mineral Wells)

Pete Hall and Frank Moon, owners of a Mineral Wells asphalt company, ran this strip, and in 1965 they also ran Wichita Falls Dragway. In 1964 NHRA named it Rookie Drag Strip of the Year. Jim Tibbitts managed it from at least 1964 through 1967. In a 1967 interview he said he built the strip and opened it in January 1964, which started his career as a promoter. While there he also took over and renovated the closed Wichita Falls Dragway, until he sold his interest in both strips in January 1966 and built a funny car. The 1965 season opened on Sunday, May 2, with more than 140 entries expected. A match race between Doug Cook and Mineral Wells native K. S. Pittman was called off after Pittman’s chute failed in a warm-up run and his ‘33 Willys went through a fence. One old-timer remembered seeing Stone, Woods and Cook run off the end and into the water one weekend, though he may have been misremembering, since newspapers said it was Pittman who went through the fence. Races were usually on the first, third and fifth Sundays, with trophies for the winners. A 1968 list of U.S. drag strips in the Swedish magazine Start & Strip included it. The races may have been at the Mineral Wells Airport southeast of town, but that hasn’t been confirmed.