Unnamed drag strip (China Grove)
Status unknownStatus unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found.
- The owner held a public contest to name the strip, but the name was never reported
- Raced
- 1960
- State
- North Carolina
- What's left
- The exact spot was never found. If it's on the map, the pin only marks the general area.
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- August 13, 1960
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Surface
- Dirt
- Location
- Melton's farm in the Ebenezer community, east of the old Concord-Salisbury Road, two miles north of Bostian Crossroads
- People
- Raymond Melton, builder and owner (1960)
- Elevation
- 822 ft (251 m)
- Coordinates
- 35.57125, -80.53379
Raymond Melton of China Grove, north of Kannapolis, had been a policeman and a grocer and was active in Democratic politics. In early July 1960 he started building a dirt drag strip on his farm in the Ebenezer community, east of the old Concord-Salisbury Road (probably State Highway 29) and two miles north of Bostian Crossroads. It opened August 13, 1960, a quarter mile with a cleared shutdown and farmland beyond if needed. He planned races Wednesday and Saturday nights and Sundays, with trophies or cash. The track almost certainly had no lights, so cars likely raced into the dark on their headlights. Melton ran a contest to name the strip, ending August 28, but the winning name was never reported, and after the first burst of publicity there was little news. His wife died in a car accident the following year. Nothing beyond the 1960 racing has been found.
