Howland Drag Raceway

Howland Drag Strip, at Howland Corners near Warren, opened in 1957. A 100-foot concrete starting pad led into a 16-foot-wide asphalt strip that ended in a dirt shutdown, and the Western Reserve Timing Association ran the races and supplied the labor. In his Drag News column of July 26, 1958, Bill Holz called it easily the longest strip in Ohio, with 3,200 feet paved and about 600 feet more, and a 21-foot width that kept drivers alert. He praised it as one of the best-run strips he’d seen, with no favoritism between a 130 mph rail and a four-banger, and said its downhill grade let cars run 3 to 4 mph faster than at other strips. He named Ben Crist as owner and manager and a fine host. Harry V. King is also named as owner. The concrete starting pad needed constant repair, and King sued the contractor, but the Ohio Supreme Court rejected his claim. The strip may have run until 1964. A housing development is slowly erasing what’s left of it.