George Ray's Dragstrip (Paragould)

History

This strip is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It sits east of Paragould, half a mile south of U.S. Highway 412 on the east side of Arkansas Highway 135. The concrete strip is 31 feet wide and 2,960 feet long. It opened in November 1961 as a quarter-mile track and bills itself as the “last heads-up only dragstrip on the planet Earth.” As speeds climbed, the timed distance was cut to 1,000 feet and then to today’s eighth mile. A spectator catwalk over the starting area survives from the early years. According to a history of the track, George Ray built it after a bad experience racing in Tennessee, because he didn’t like the way some other operators ran their tracks. He’s remembered as something of a whirling dervish, doing everything from classing and inspecting cars to racing his own. An early newspaper report said three Blytheville men, including Jimmy Sellers, brought home trophies in three different stock classes from racing there on Sunday, August 2, 1964. It’s also called George Ray’s Wildcat Dragstrip.