Concord Drag Strip
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- An artesian well burst through the pavement in March 1959, postponing a race
- Hosted the first Dixie Drag Classic on August 15, 1959
- Raced
- 1958-69, 1971
- State
- North Carolina
- What's left
- The site was redeveloped, but the strip or its layout lives on in whatever replaced it.
- On the site today
- Woodcrest Drive SW in the Old South subdivision
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- August 16, 1958
- Last race
- 1971 season
- Track
- 3/4 mile overall
- Surface
- Asphalt
- Location
- Half a mile down Roberta Mill Road off Highway 29, three miles west of Concord
- People
- Roe Brown, owner and builder (1958, 1964)
- Jane Brown, owner and builder (1958)
- Clyde Ritchie, track manager (1961)
- Elevation
- 604 ft (184 m)
- Coordinates
- 35.37138, -80.63970
Owners and builders Roe and Jane Brown started work around May 1958 on a $75,000 asphalt strip, 60 feet wide and three-quarters of a mile long, three miles west of Concord off Highway 29, half a mile down Roberta Mill Road. The Universal Timing Association of Concord sanctioned it. It opened August 16, 1958. On August 23 the field filled at 120 cars and racers were turned away, with Allen Weddle of Burlington taking top eliminator at 104.65 MPH in his B/AR and Richard Behling of Charlotte setting a track record of 116.88 MPH. Later in 1958 Wilbur Bucy of Ohio raised it to 140.63 MPH. A March 1959 race had to be postponed when an artesian well burst up through the pavement. At the first Dixie Drag Classic on August 15, 1959, Pope Johnson of Kingsport, Tennessee, won top eliminator at 10.58 in his Cadillac-powered dragster before 3,500 people.
In 1961 the track paid cash prizes and put its emphasis on stock cars over roadsters, with Clyde Ritchie as manager. Alan Weddle ran 150 MPH in his A/GD on May 13, 1961. Roe Brown reopened the strip on May 2, 1964 after spending $12,000 on renovations including repaving, with Saturday night races planned through August. Tax problems hit around 1968-69. It may not have run in 1970, but it opened for 1971 under new management, apparently its last season. A 1973 attempt to reopen failed. The strip ran about where Woodcrest Drive SW is now in the Old South subdivision.
