Eastside Speedway (Waynesboro)

The earliest race found was on Sunday, March 27, 1966, though there were probably earlier ones. A free open house on January 23, 1966, was billed as a shakedown but had no racing. The speedway complex, a couple of miles north of Waynesboro, now has an eighth-mile drag strip and a 4/10-mile dirt oval. The strip began as a quarter mile with Al Gore as owner and promoter. At the October 9 race Howard Lichliter of Staunton won a best-of-three match race in his dragster against Allen Star of North Carolina, and Bob Bateman of Roanoke took top competition at 163 MPH. In 1967 races ran every Friday night, then moved to Sundays in mid-August. Through the 1970s the racing switched among Friday nights, Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. The track was IHRA sanctioned in 1973. In August 1980 eighth-mile drag races were part of the Greater Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Fair for the first time, and in 1981 the strip went to eighth-mile racing.