Unnamed drag strip (Helena)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- The Highway Patrol timed racers with radar
- Raced
- 1955-56
- State
- Montana
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- A public road
- Surface
- Paved road
- Location
- State highway shops cutoff road west of U.S. 91, then West Custer Avenue west of the Sunset Drive-In
- People
- Helena Safe-Teen Club, sponsor (1955)
- Capital City Hot Rod Association, ran races (1955)
- Elevation
- 3,851 ft (1,174 m)
- Coordinates
- 46.61632, -112.02085
Helena’s first organized drag races ran on the state highway shops cutoff road west of U.S. 91, north of town. Teenagers could race with parental permission. The Helena Safe-Teen Club sponsored the races, the Capital City Hot Rod Association ran them, and the Highway Patrol timed cars with radar. Chuck Dickert had top speed on October 2, 1955, at 81 mph on his motorcycle. That site seems to have been used only once before racing moved to a paved road west of the Sunset Drive-In, which stood at the southwest corner of North Montana Avenue and Custer Avenue. That stretch, closed off for racing, is today’s West Custer Avenue.
More in Montana
- Active Still racing today. Big Sky Dragway/Spike Naranche Memorial Dragway/Lost Creek Raceway (Anaconda) 1966-present
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Billings Municipal Airport 1955-58
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Butte Airport 1957-62
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Conrad Airport 1961
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Copper City Road Angels drag strip (Butte) 1956
- Status unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found. Electric City Dragway/Great Falls Dragway 1969-71
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Gallatin Field (Belgrade) 1958-60
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Glasgow Air Force Base (St. Marie) 1969
- Active Still racing today. Hi-Line Dragstrip (Malta) ca. 2008-present
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Hustler's Dragway (Glendive) 1969-82
- Active Still racing today. Lewistown Raceway/King Cam Dragway 1957-present
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Malmstrom Air Force Base 1955