Coles County Dragway (Charleston)

History

Coles County Dragway is on Route 316, seven miles east of Mattoon. Local racers had long talked about building a drag strip, but finding land always stopped them. Bill Fuqua said the idea came up again one morning over coffee with friends, they asked whether he had land, he said he did, and after a little more talk they decided to build. It opened within 3 1/2 months on a $75,000 investment. Fuqua was president of the corporation, and the other principals were Neal Cole, Dwight Kingery and Dean Isley.

The first race ran on Saturday, August 13, 1966. The lighting wasn’t enough for night racing, so more was added for August 20. On August 27, over 2,000 spectators watched 181 entries until the extra lights overloaded the transformer and it blew in the middle of the program. A bigger one was in place by September 3, and the crowds soon called for more bleachers. Saturday night racing was for summer only, with Sunday afternoon races in spring and fall. In the top eliminator final on April 21, 1968, Don Pennington’s AA/FD faced Jim Simpson’s A/FD, and Pennington’s chute failed to open, sending him off the end of the track. A fuel altered match race between Wild Willie Borsch and Leon Fitzgerald headlined on August 7, 1971.

From 1977 through at least 1980, Ron Evans owned and ran the track as Rolling Thunder Raceway, with Chuck Scrimpsher announcing in the late 1970s. It closed for a short time and was back under the Coles County Dragway name by 1987 at the latest. It now runs as an NHRA-sanctioned eighth-mile track.