Capitol Raceway Park

Newspapers expected the strip just south of Gambrills to be done around May 20, 1962, but delays pushed the opening to August 26 (Annapolis Capital, March 29, 1962). An online source wrongly dates the opening to September 1961. Promoters hoped for weekly Wednesday and Saturday night racing, though the early years had weekly Sunday races. The strip was 4,000 feet long and 60 feet wide. It hosted NHRA’s first Northeast Division Invitational on October 21, 1962, with a special appearance by Don Garlits, and billed itself as the nation’s capital of drag racing. On November 25, 1962, the Reese Brothers B/FD had low time at 9.02 and 166.13 mph.

In 1963 the county found the raceway had been running without an amusement license and told it to get one or close. That year the track also claimed the only electronic handicap starter in the country. NHRA sanctioned it in 1967, and Robert Wilberger managed it in the mid-1970s. On April 7, 1979, a sniper in nearby woods fired a .22 rifle at Robert Metheny while he raced his 1965 GTO, and his helmet stopped the bullet. As of 2018 it ran as an eighth-mile IHRA track.