Cenla Raceway (Forest Hill)

Nothing left

Kelly Chadwick ran 7.78 in a Vega funny car in 1972, .18 off the national record

Raced: 1969-ca. 1977
State: Louisiana
What's left: The site was redeveloped and nothing of the strip remains.
On the site today: Redeveloped
Raced on: Built as a drag strip
First race: November 30, 1969
Last race: before June 1977
Track: 4,000 feet
Surface: Asphalt
Location: Camp Claiborne, seventeen miles southwest of Alexandria, east of U.S. 165 and north of State Highway 112
People: David Sheffield, president
Ed Pebbles, secretary, organizer
Jack Gunn, officer
Eddie Johnson, officer
Sanction: NHRA
Elevation: 180 ft (55 m)
Coordinates: 31.06658, -92.52085

This mile-long strip was built at Camp Claiborne, an abandoned Army camp seventeen miles southwest of Alexandria. It sat just southeast of Bringhurst, on the east side of U.S. 165 and north of State Highway 112. Ed Pebbles, the secretary, talked the other officers into the project: president David Sheffield, Jack Gunn and Eddie Johnson. The strip got NHRA sanction in 1969 and opened November 30, 1969. Its asphalt was 4,000 feet long and 60 feet wide. Fuel dragsters, funny cars, fuel altereds, wheelstanders and jet cars were booked to bring in crowds. On May 21, 1972, Kelly Chadwick set the track record of 7.78 in his Vega funny car, .18 off the national record. The track closed before June 1977. The old strip showed in aerial photos through 2004, and after that the site was cleared and redeveloped.

Listing in National Dragster, Dec. 23, 1977. Courttesy of Mel Bashore

Howard Davis leaves the starting line at Cenla Raceway in his B/MP 1957 Corvette. Photo published in Crowley Post Herald, Mar. 12, 1971

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