Douglas-Tahoe (Minden) Airport

The Minden Airport opened in 1942. In 1955 the Nevada Timing Association started holding quarter-mile drag races there every two weeks, beginning July 3, when Jim Perry of Clarksburg, California, took top eliminator. Races followed on July 17 and August 14. On September 25, more than 400 spectators watched 60 entries, and Art Hammond of Stockton, California, won top eliminator at 112.5 MPH. The last race of 1955 was on November 6.

Warren Welsh of Reno set a top speed record of 118.03 MPH on May 27, 1956 in his nitro-burning, rear-engine Mercury flathead dragster. A California-Nevada half-mile championship on August 5, 1956 drew more than 200 racers and 1,400 spectators, and Harold Casaurang had top speed at 139.805 MPH in his nitro Mercury dragster. Leo Saunders of Oakland won the half-mile top eliminator on May 26, 1957 in his Olds-powered dragster. That meet used a hand-operated red-green traffic light to start races, with a flagman kept on only for the crowd. Welsh set a Nevada quarter-mile record of 135.849 MPH in the Lee’s Body Shop Special on June 23, 1957. On July 14, 1957, NHRA sanctioned the association’s strip, the 52nd in the country. Later that year Welsh set a state half-mile record of 156.52 MPH. Most California strips banned nitro and other non-gasoline fuels, but Minden allowed them in 1957.

In June 1958 the association moved its races to an auxiliary airfield at Silver Springs. It came back once for the second annual open fuel Silver Dollar Invitational on May 31, 1959, where Bill Friedman won the four-foot Silver Dollar trophy for top speed, 148 MPH, in his “Saugstad Special” B dragster.