Firebird Raceway (Eagle)

History

Bill New filed incorporation papers for Firebird Raceway on May 10, 1968, and Hot Rod’s March 1969 issue listed it as NHRA-sanctioned. On April 13, 1969, Denny Thomas was killed when he lost control of his dragster after crossing the finish line. New was an energetic promoter from the start. Don Prudhomme raced his top fueler there in July 1970. New opened the 1971 season on Sunday, April 4, with an event he called the Firebird Ignitor, booking four big-name funny cars: Prudhomme in his Mattel Hot Wheels Barracuda, Ed McCulloch, Kenny Goodell, and Jerry “The King” Ruth in his ‘71 Mach 1. On May 30, 1971, Chuck Poole’s wheelstander shared the bill with four fuel altereds from Mike Sullivan, Dave Hough (“Nanook”), Randy Bradford and Ed Moore (“Mob T”). A big stock, super stock and pro stock show on June 19, 1971, drew Bill Bagshaw, Butch Leal, Dave Wren and Cal Method.

The track held its first NHRA divisional race on May 13-14, 1972. On Friday night, July 6, 1973, Don Garlits beat Jerry Ruth two out of three in a match race, with Garlits running the best time of 6.51 at 221.04 mph. Firebird switched to AHRA sanction in 1974 and hosted an AHRA Grand National in late September. Gary Beck won top fuel and set a track record of 242.59 mph in 6.30 seconds, Don Prudhomme won funny car and Dick Landy won pro stock.