Jackson Drag Strip/Delta Raceway/Jackson Sports Arena/Capitol City Raceway

Guy Burroughs and Floyd Garrison built a hard-surface drag strip on Highway 49 North in Jackson, two miles north of Northview Drive. It opened April 28, 1957, with a grandstand (probably bleachers) and $1.25 adult admission. The ads reflect the segregation of the time and place. Black and white racers raced on separate days, and at races open to both, Black spectators paid a dime less but only white drivers could compete. The surface may have been packed dirt at first, since heavy rain postponed several races, but it was paved by early June. A race on June 2, 1957 drew more than 2,000 people and was shown in a half-hour WJTV segment, and Ival Cooper set a track record of 110 mph. In July the owners were told they couldn’t start before 1 p.m. on Sundays.

A half-mile oval went in next to the strip in 1958, when new management renamed it Delta Raceway, and a year later it became Jackson Sports Arena, likely reflecting the combined complex. Organized go-kart races ran on the strip in 1961. The Dixie Coachmen car club ran the races in 1962 until it split with management. In July 1968, in its last months, the track became Capitol City Raceway, its fourth name, and announced that all gate receipts from a big super stock meet on September 29, 1968 would go to fight cystic fibrosis. Racing seems to have ended in October 1968, and the Presidential Hills housing development wiped out the strip before 1971.