Kahuku Point Airfield (Oahu)

Drag races ran on a runway of the World War II airfield at the northernmost tip of Oahu. Three old WWII fields sat close together on the north end of the island, and Kahuku Point, right at the tip, had the most facilities, with two paved runways and a taxiway beside the northern runway. Walter Dick, a founder of the local hot rod club around 1952, said the club arranged access with the Filipino farmer who held the lease. They raced on the end of the south segment of the strip and had to chase the cows off first. The north segment held the antenna field for the RCA short-wave transmitting station and doubled as a National Guard summer camp, and most of the middle was covered in blowing sand. His description points to the wide northwest-southeast strip on the east side of the point, which still shows in aerial photos.

The earliest record is a race on August 1, 1954, and the third race followed on August 15. Newspapers said racers were timed over the quarter mile using a rolling start. On December 5, 1954, Jimmy Pflueger beat David Blight two out of three for top eliminator, and on October 9, 1955, he set a track record of 110.42 mph. German Frias raised it to 120 mph on his twin-engine motorcycle on April 22, 1956. In March 1957 Drag-Racing Limited incorporated and leased the strip from the Campbell Estate, with the Hawaii Motor Timing Association running the races. That April the HMTA boycotted the strip for two weeks until Drag Racing Limited agreed to carry proper insurance.

Longie Gandall set a record of 134.32 mph at 10.38 seconds on May 12, 1957. At a four-day meet on July 4-7, 1957, Emery Cook drove the Cook & Bedwell fuel dragster from San Diego to a record 166.66 mph and a low ET of 9.19 in front of thousands, and fellow mainland racer Ed Cortopassi ran 160.59 mph in the “Glass Slipper.” Jim Nelson’s “Dragmaster Hawaii” set a gas dragster record of 163.25 mph in 8.45 seconds on September 4, 1961. When the track closed in 1964, Roland Leong held the strip record at 180 mph in 8.58 seconds. The opening of Hawaii Raceway Park effectively ended racing at Kahuku. A hotel, golf course and wildlife refuge now cover the old airfield.