Charlotte Fairgrounds Drag Strip
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Metrolina Speedway
- Allen Weddle set a dirt-track eighth-mile record of 77.58 MPH at the first race
- Raced
- 1959-60
- State
- North Carolina
- What's left
- You can still spot it in aerial photos, or broken pieces of the track surface remain.
- Raced on
- Fairgrounds
- First race
- March 28, 1959
- Last race
- April 3, 1960 (last documented)
- Track
- 1/8 mile
- Surface
- Dirt
- Location
- Half-mile dirt track at the Charlotte fairgrounds
- People
- International Timing Association, race operator (1959)
- Elevation
- 815 ft (248 m)
- Coordinates
- 35.31950, -80.83652
Eighth-mile drag races ran on the half-mile dirt track at the fairgrounds speedway, with spectators watching the night races from covered grandstands. At the first, on March 28, 1959, Allen Weddle of Burlington set the dirt-track eighth-mile speed record at 77.58 MPH. The International Timing Association held a race on Wednesday, July 15, 1959. The first race of 1960, on March 27, was sanctioned by the newly formed Precision Timing Association, and class winners got imported marble trophies. Zeke Hider of Gastonia took top eliminator in his Pontiac-powered coupe. Another race followed on April 3, 1960. The track was later called Metrolina Speedway and no longer operates.
