Double Eagle Drag Strip/San Antonio Drag Raceway (Kirby)

Drag races ran every Sunday at this strip in Kirby, near San Antonio. The first newspaper ads found were for a race at the new strip on May 13, 1956, though there may have been earlier races, and articles written years later said it was built in 1955 as the first strip in Texas built specifically for drag racing. Admission was $1 with no extra charge to race, and military personnel in uniform got in for half price. The 1956 directions put it three miles from San Antonio off Loop 13, east on Farm Road 1976, between Kirby and Converse. Chuck and Shirley Oliver managed it for owners Bill and Dorothy McClure, who had a dairy farm outside Fort Worth. Most of the site is now a housing development off Gibbs Sprawl Road between Rittiman Road and Walzem Road.

On August 30, 1956, local car clubs met to talk about forming a South Texas Timing Association to sponsor the racing. Santos Gonzales had top speed on October 7, 1956, at 95 MPH in his 1928 Ford roadster. Howard Varnon won top eliminator on November 17, 1957, at 99 MPH in his A/G 1932 Ford, Tommy Gibson won on December 15 at 115 MPH, and Bennie Cass won at 95 MPH in his A fueler on February 16, 1958. On March 18, 1958, someone deliberately set fire to the ticket office and was seen driving off in a 1953 station wagon. A March of Dimes benefit race was held at the airfield on February 8, 1959.

The strip became San Antonio Drag Raceway, or San Antonio Drag Strip, at the start of the 1961 season. Cecil Lankford won top eliminator on January 29, 1961, at 134.289 in his Chrysler-powered A dragster. Friday night racing began on May 19, 1961, with trophies in 95 classes, and Sunday racing was dropped for the summer. The South Texas eighth-mile championships were held on September 10, 1961. Walt Arfons ran 7.82 at 204.540 MPH in his “Green Monster 16” jet on November 11, 1962. In the mid-1960s manager John Durand brought in many of drag racing’s top names for exhibitions, among them Don Garlits, K. S. Pittman, the “Hurst Hemi Under Glass” wheelstander, Art Malone, Don Nicholson, Bill “Maverick” Golden’s “Little Red Wagon,” Dickie Harrell, Tommy Ivo, Don Gay, Shirley Shahan, Stone-Woods & Cook and Romeo Palamides. By 1966 Garlits held the track record at 209 MPH. The track hosted AHRA regional events and record runs every year. 1969 was a bad year. On January 5 Larry Reed was killed when his car went out of control and overturned, the first serious accident there in a decade, and later that year Fred Burdett, 26, died when his car overturned in time trials. The track closed in late 1970.