Enchantment Park (El Paso)

A paved quarter-mile drag strip, 45 feet wide and 3,000 feet long, was built at the old El Paso Speedway between the grandstand and the 3/8-mile clay oval, with the finish line in front of the grandstand. Ads said it was six miles from the Hilton Hotel in El Paso on Highway 80 West, through Smeltertown. It sat west of today’s Sunland Park horse track. The Southwest Timing Association ran the races. The first one, on April 28, 1957, drew more than 2,000 people to watch 80 cars. Admission was 75 cents and a pit pass $1, racers paid no entry fee for the opener, and a dance followed. The next race was May 5. On June 16, 1957, the track held its first Sunday night race under lights that ran the length of the strip, and 1,000 people watched 55 cars in six classes. On Mother’s Day 1958 mothers got in free. George Brazil held the track record of 137 MPH as of late 1958. That fall, J. E. Morgan and Sons announced they planned to get rid of the track. Francis Morgan had bought it from Al Goodwin a few months earlier and wanted to turn it into an airstrip. The last day of racing was December 28, 1958.