Clear Springs Air Strip (New Braunfels)

In June 1956 the New Braunfels Junior Chamber of Commerce began looking into a drag strip to cut down on street racing. It got the use of the Clear Springs Air Strip, a mile-long asphalt runway, and held the first race on October 21, 1956. The NHRA-sanctioned races ran on the third Sunday of each month. The second, on November 18, 1956, had electric timing clocks and trophies for 27 class winners. On March 24, 1957, the Schranck Brothers’ B/MR from San Antonio had top speed at 106.11 MPH. In 1959 the Central Texas Racing Association ran the third-Sunday races. Pinning down the location took some work. News reports placed the strip off State Highway 25 (probably today’s Highway 46, since it was described as the Seguin-New Braunfels route), five miles south of New Braunfels and seven miles north of Seguin. But a March 2, 1958, San Antonio Express article put it 1.5 miles east of Clear Springs, which matches today’s New Braunfels Regional Airport, four miles east of New Braunfels. The airport opened in 1944 as the Clear Springs Air Strip and was later called New Braunfels Municipal Airport.