Columbus Drag Strip
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Vaughn Field
- Governor George Wallace attended a 1964 race to raise campaign money
- Raced
- ca. 1964-2012
- State
- Mississippi
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- A military airfield
- Last race
- 2012 or later (unconfirmed)
- Location
- Vaughn Field, a World War II landing field
- Elevation
- 171 ft (52 m)
- Coordinates
- 33.38125, -88.36800
Sometime in the 1960s, Vaughn Field, an old World War II landing field, started hosting drag races. Alabama Governor George Wallace attended a race in Columbus on May 31, 1964, co-sponsored by the Columbus and Tuscaloosa Jaycees, to raise money for his presidential campaign and to fight the pending civil rights bill. Start & Strip magazine listed the strip among 325 U.S. strips in 1968. On January 10, 1969, John Foreman, 17, of West Point, was killed by an oncoming race car while flagging at a strip in or near Columbus. Little else is known beyond recent YouTube videos, the latest from 2012. Racing is presumed to have stopped, but that isn’t confirmed.
Video
More in Mississippi
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