Dallas International Motor Speedway

This multi-million-dollar racing plant was built on 380 acres south of Lewisville. The drag strip was due to be done in mid-May 1969, in time for the NHRA Springnationals on June 13-15. It had a $50,000 four-level glass-paneled timing tower, grandstands for 12,000 and lights for Saturday night racing. A 2.5-mile road course came later, followed by a quarter-mile dirt course for motorcycles. The last day of the 1969 Springnationals was marred when funny car driver Gerry Schwartz was killed in a mid-track collision with Pat Foster, who was driving Mickey Thompson’s Mach I Mustang, in front of an estimated 25,000 spectators. Hank Westmoreland won top fuel in his “Beachcomber” dragster, and Foster’s teammate Danny Ongais won funny car. The speedway hosted the NHRA World Finals on October 25-26, 1969, and again in 1970. NHRA held its Springnationals there on June 11-13, 1971, where Don Garlits, Don Schumacher and Ronnie Sox won the pro classes.

After that event management offered the financially troubled track to NHRA, which declined to buy it, and the owners leased it to IHRA. That forced NHRA to move the World Finals to Amarillo on short notice. IHRA raced at DIMS from September 1971 until it closed in 1973. On October 16, 1971, Art Arfons’s “Super Cyclops” jet dragster, which he had fitted with a second seat for passengers, blew a rear tire with Dallas TV news host Gene Thomas aboard. It crashed through a guardrail and hit two IHRA emergency crewmen, and Thomas and both crewmen were killed. Arfons never drove a jet dragster again. The last big race was the IHRA Longhorn National Championships on April 27-29, 1973. Rainouts, debt and maintenance costs pushed the track into bankruptcy. The property was bought for commercial development, the facilities were torn down, and no trace of the complex remains.