Hobbs Air Base/Charioteers Dragway/Sandyland Raceway Park/Hobbs Motorsports Park
ActiveActive Still racing today.
Also known as Charioteers Drag Strip; Air Base Raceway; Hobbs Raceway Park
Hobbs has a historical airfield-based drag-racing lineage with several names.
- Romeo Palamides' "Untouchable" jet dragster ran 225 MPH on January 2, 1966
- Hosted an AHRA Grand American points race on June 22-23, 1968
- More than 600 cars entered the 1962 Memorial Day race
- Raced
- 1955-56, 1959-present
- State
- New Mexico
- Raced on
- A military airfield
- First race
- May 8, 1955
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Surface
- Asphalt runway
- Address
- 5333 N A Street
Hobbs, NM 88240 - People
- Paisanos car club, organizer (1955-56)
- Charioteers Auto Club, race operator (1959-61)
- Sanction
- AHRA, NHRA
- Elevation
- 3,688 ft (1,124 m)
- Coordinates
- 32.75931, -103.21367
Big races
Roadrunner Rally
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
History
Hobbs Air Base, five miles northwest of Hobbs, was built in 1942 and deeded to the city in 1948. In 1955 the Paisanos car club ran drag races on one of its asphalt runways, with an NHRA official helping at the first race on May 8. Trophies went to five class winners. Another race followed on June 12, and the Paisanos and the Lubbock Road Dusters ran an NHRA-sanctioned race on June 26, charging 50 cents for cars and spectators. Races continued monthly in 1956. From 1959 to 1961 the Charioteers Auto Club raced on the first Sunday of each month under NHRA sanction, and 1,200 spectators watched 200 racers on April 3, 1960. More than 600 cars entered the 1962 Memorial Day race, the Dragmaster Dart among them. By 1963 newspapers called it the Charioteers Drag Strip or Charioteers Dragway.
Romeo Palamides’ “Untouchable” jet dragster ran 225 MPH in exhibition on January 2, 1966. As Sandyland Raceway Park, the strip hosted an AHRA Grand American points race on June 22-23, 1968. From about 1974 to 1983 it was Air Base Raceway or Hobbs Raceway Park, under AHRA sanction. The old base is now Hobbs Industrial Airpark, and the strip runs under NHRA sanction as Hobbs Motorsports Park.
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