Ellington Air Force Base (Houston)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Ellington Field
- A multi-day race in September 1956 reportedly drew almost 75,000 people
- Said to have helped get a permanent Houston strip started
- Raced
- 1956
- State
- Texas
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- A military airfield
- First race
- September 1956
- Location
- Ellington Field, fifteen miles southeast of downtown Houston, between Houston and Galveston
- People
- Greater Houston Timing Association, race organizer (1956)
- Elevation
- 27 ft (8 m)
- Coordinates
- 29.60881, -95.16352
A drag race held over several days at the airfield in September 1956 reportedly drew almost 75,000 people. One old-timer remembered that in the mid-1950s, before Houston had a drag strip, the Greater Houston Timing Association (GHTA) was formed and put on a big one-time race at Ellington Field, between Houston and Galveston. He said it drew crowds big enough to get a permanent strip started. The base was fifteen miles southeast of downtown Houston. It opened as a military field in 1917, and the city of Houston bought the airport in 1984.
Background
The field started as Ellington Field, was an Air Force base for a stretch, then took back the Ellington Field name. It's now Ellington Airport, a civil and military reliever field owned by the Houston Airport System about 17 miles southeast of downtown, and in October 2018 the city signed off on the first phase of the Houston Spaceport there.
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