Lake Charles Dragway
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- Ran on an unused Civil Defense runway with portable tower and grandstands
- Raced
- 1983
- State
- Louisiana
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- On the site today
- Chennault International Airport
- Raced on
- A military airfield
- Surface
- Runway
- Location
- Former Chennault Air Force Base, four miles east of Lake Charles
- People
- Steven Broussard, filed incorporation papers (1983)
- Boyd Gaines, owner
- Sanction
- NHRA
- Elevation
- 10 ft (3 m)
- Coordinates
- 30.21244, -93.15526
Chennault Air Force Base, four miles east of Lake Charles, closed in 1963 and then had a mix of civilian uses and tenants. By the early 1980s its unused Civil Defense runway was a drag strip. Steven Broussard filed incorporation papers for Lake Charles Dragway on February 4, 1983, though racing may have started before that. A race on May 7, 1983 was part of the Contraband Days Festival. When racing ended isn’t known, but the mid-1980s work that turned the base into Chennault International Airport may have played a part. David Miller recalled a portable tower, portable grandstands and generator power, all so the military could take the place back if needed. He said the owner was Boyd Gaines, the Houston cars were regulars, it was NHRA-sanctioned, and it ran all through the ’80s.
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