East Bend Dragway
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- The finish line was about 45 feet lower than the starting line
- Raced
- ca. 1955-81
- State
- North Carolina
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- On the site today
- Owned by a construction company and used as a motocross access road; asphalt broken up
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- about 1955
- Track
- 1/4 mile, later 1/8 mile
- Surface
- Dirt, later asphalt
- Location
- NC 67, next to a drive-in theater
- People
- George Butner, builder (ca. 1955)
- Elevation
- 970 ft (296 m)
- Coordinates
- 36.21314, -80.49268
Kim Hinshaw said this strip on NC 67 opened around 1955, though 1955 aerial photos don’t show it. He said George Butner, who owned the drive-in theater next door, built it. It started as a dirt quarter mile and was later paved, by 1962 according to aerial photos. By 1974 it was down to an eighth mile. On April 21, 1974, Charlie “Opie” Wilson, 52, was killed when his funny car went off the end of the strip at about 180 MPH and hit oak trees. Hinshaw said the track ran steeply downhill, with the finish line about 45 feet lower than the start. It was to be auctioned in 2016, and Hinshaw said a construction company bought it and also uses it as an access road to a motocross track. Heavy equipment has broken up the asphalt badly.
