Freeman Army Airfield (Seymour)

The Hoosier Time Tuners car club sponsored and ran the first drag races at Freeman Field, on a runway a couple of miles southwest of Seymour, on March 25, 1956. Races were timed over 1/5 mile, with an electric timer that used two rubber hoses 132 feet apart at the end of the track to work out speed. Winners in nine classes got certificates for free gas. More than 1,000 people watched 105 cars from across Indiana and Kentucky. Clubs included the Cluster Busters, Robots, Motorheads and Flywheels of Indianapolis, the Knights of the Road from Columbus, the Shifters from Mitchell and the Rebels from New Albany.

John Lawrence had top speed of 85 mph in his supercharged ‘56 Ford on September 9, 1956. On March 31, 1957, 5,000 people watched 219 entries in nineteen classes. The club first used timing equipment from the ATAA at its fourth race, on Sunday, July 7, 1957, with about twenty classes on the program and Dick Lauf announcing. The last race ran on April 6, 1958, after which drag racing at the field was banned. A likely reason was a widely reported crash in which two teenage boys driving to the race were killed when their car overturned. The city now owns the field as Freeman Municipal Airport.