Chester Drag Strip

Drag races ran on a mile-long, 150-foot-wide asphalt runway at the Chester airport. Bob Osiecki managed them for the International Timing Association, and the Road Rebels Car Club helped with timing. Racing was on Saturdays, starting in November 1956, and at the first race Bill Helms of Charlotte set the track record at 97.82 MPH in an Olds-powered roadster.

The ITA held a three-day meet from November 29 to December 1, 1957, the first of the yearly International Drag Races at Chester. Setto Postoian won top eliminator in his Chrysler-powered dragster with a top speed of 161 MPH, and Don Garlits set a track record of 160.71 MPH. Art Arfons set a gas dragster record of 158.60 MPH, then lost control while slowing from a 152 MPH run and went end over end in his Rolls Royce-powered “Green Monster.” He suffered only a broken finger, but the car was destroyed. More than 100 entries ran the regular meet on April 12, 1958, and Ted Helms was fastest at 102.27 MPH in his Chevy-powered 1940 Ford. Garlits raised the track record to 166.50 MPH on August 30, 1958. At the second International Drag Races on November 27-29, 1958, Postoian won top eliminator again at 161 MPH, Arfons ran 166.50 MPH in his A/GD, and Garlits blew three engines but got in a 163 MPH run.

On June 20, 1959, Garlits was badly burned when the manifold ruptured during a 170 MPH run in his Swamp Rat 1. He later said that before the accident he was a fresh kid who liked building fast cars and racing them, and that afterward racing was a tough, exciting business and no longer a game. Art Malone drove the dragster while Garlits recovered. Henry Easterby of Columbia won top eliminator in the Carson Hyman Special at the third International Drag Races in 1959, and on November 27, 1959, Dave Reitz of Ryattsville, Maryland, set a world eighth-mile record of 142.35 MPH in his DeSoto-powered dragster. The last drag race at Chester was on August 20, 1960.