Jackson Drag Strip/Carolina Dragway
ActiveActive Still racing today.
Also known as House of Hook
Carolina Dragway is the Jackson strip marketed as the House of Hook.
- Art Arfons set a world gas dragster record of 157.89 MPH there in 1957
- Junior Johnson and Fred Lorenzen ran a match race there on August 3, 1963
- Nicknamed the House of Hook for its traction
- Raced
- 1957-present
- State
- South Carolina
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- April 1957 (grand opening July 30, 1957)
- Sanction
- NHRA Division 2
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Address
- 302 Dragstrip Road
Aiken, SC 29803 - People
- R. J. Foreman, owner (1957)
- L. B. "Junior" Steed, owner and operator (1957-late 1960s)
- Gussie Holmes, owner (1957)
- Elevation
- 302 ft (92 m)
- Coordinates
- 33.35995, -81.79572
Big races
Big Bucks Bracket Race
Season-ending bracket race paying $20,000 per day with Wally trophies; the 2025 edition was the 21st.
Night of Fire
Spring show with nitro funny cars, fuel altereds, jet dragsters and wheelstanders, held alongside an NHRA Open.
Radial Fest and grudge events
The track hosts promoter-run radial tire and grudge races such as Radial Fest, No Mercy Grudgefest and King of the South.
Thursday test and tune and Summit Bracket Series
Thursday night test and tune and grudge sessions plus a 10-race Summit bracket points series.
Southeast Street-N-Yeet
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
Street Car Braggin Rights
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
Southeast Street-N-Yeet Fall
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
Hot Rod Drag Week
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
History
Backers formed a corporation and sold $100 shares to raise $7,500 for a drag strip on what was then called Dual Highway, a mile northwest of Jackson. R. J. Foreman, L. B. Steed and Gussie Holmes owned it. L. B. “Junior” Steed opened it to racing in April 1957, and the official grand opening, slowed by rain, came on July 30, 1957. Many racers reportedly called it the smoothest and best strip in the Southeast. Races ran every Saturday night, with cash and trophies for class winners. The three-day International Race on November 29-30 and December 1, 1957, drew thousands of fans. Art Arfons brought three “Green Monster” dragsters and on opening day set a world gas dragster record of 157.89 MPH in the Allison-powered car. The next day Don Garlits set a track record of 160.71 MPH in his fuel dragster. Ed Campbell of Bristol, West Virginia, won top eliminator in his ‘56 Chevy at 100.80 MPH on June 13, 1959. On August 3, 1963, stock car stars Junior Johnson and Fred Lorenzen ran a two-out-of-three match race. In the late 1960s Steed let teenagers race free on Sunday afternoons. Early in 1969 a bill went to the state legislature to exempt drag racing in Aiken County from the Sunday blue laws. Today it is an NHRA-sanctioned quarter-mile strip nicknamed the “House of Hook” for its traction.
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