Kona Drag Strip

Races were held at the Kona airport, known as Kailua Airport Park, which served as an airport until 1970. In February 1970 state representative Toshio Serizawa introduced a House resolution asking the state to allow drag racing there once the airport closed. Officials decided in November 1970 to make it a camping area and park instead, but those plans fizzled, and drag racing was under way by January 1971 at the latest. It ran under NHRA sanction for some of the 1970s. It served as a stopgap while the Hilo Drag Strip was planned and built, and it closed around 1977 when the surface wore out. Even after Hilo opened there was interest in reopening Kona, because racers in west Hawaii didn’t want to tow all the way to Hilo with its uncertain weather. County officials turned the idea down in 1978 as too costly.