Heart of Dixie Drag Strip (Sylacauga)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Sylacauga Dragway; Odena Drag Strip
- Built at a police lieutenant's urging to curb teenage street racing
- Raced
- 1960s-88
- State
- Alabama
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- Last race
- late 1980s, possibly later
- Track
- 1/4 mile, later 1/8 mile
- Location
- About four miles north of Sylacauga, just east of Odena Road
- People
- Lt. Al Higgins, promoted its construction (1965)
- Elevation
- 435 ft (133 m)
- Coordinates
- 33.25084, -86.26172
In 1965, Lt. Al Higgins of the Sylacauga Police Department pushed for a drag strip to curb street racing by teenagers. It was built about four miles north of Sylacauga, just east of Odena Road. Its opening date hasn’t been found, but by 1969 it was racing on Wednesday nights as Heart of Dixie Drag Strip. It also went by Sylacauga Dragway (1978-86) and Odena Drag Strip. It started as a quarter-mile track and later switched to eighth-mile racing. One researcher dated its closing to the late 1980s, though it may have run later than that.
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