Lake Waco Drag Strip

A drag race was held on June 16, 1957, at the paved Lake Waco Drag Strip on the west side of Lake Waco. To get there you crossed the Highway 6 bridge heading west from Waco, then went north 2.5 miles through and past Speegleville. Admission was 99 cents. A race on October 20 was called off for wet ground, and racing picked up again on Sunday, October 27, 1957. Ads in 1958 stressed that it was a paved strip with no dust. The exact location isn’t known. Racing may have started before 1957 on a dirt strip. One man remembered his father talking about a dirt strip near Speegleville in the 1950s, where his ‘50 Merc went about 60 MPH in the quarter, which was fast then. They had some way to measure speed but didn’t time ETs. Another old-timer thought it was gravel, and remembered someone in a ‘55 Ford fishtailing on purpose and showering everyone with rocks. There were no fences, and spectators walked back and forth across the track.