Lakewood Speedway (Atlanta)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- Newspapers called the April 25, 1954, race the first drag race in Atlanta
- Half-mile races used rolling starts
- Raced
- 1954, 1957-58
- State
- Georgia
- What's left
- You can still spot it in aerial photos, or broken pieces of the track surface remain.
- Raced on
- Fairgrounds
- First race
- April 25, 1954
- Track
- 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile
- Surface
- Dirt
- Location
- Front straightaway of Lakewood Speedway, Lakewood Fairgrounds
- Elevation
- 889 ft (271 m)
- Coordinates
- 33.70254, -84.39335
Newspapers called the race on Sunday, April 25, 1954, the first drag race in Atlanta. Bob Ellis won the 200-250 cubic inch class in his ‘40 Ford in 17.46 seconds for the quarter mile. Papers didn’t say whether the quarter-mile runs used standing starts, but the half-mile races used rolling starts. Another race followed on May 16, 1954. The drag strip was the front straightaway of Lakewood Speedway, a one-mile dirt track at the Lakewood Fairgrounds dating to 1917. One researcher said drag races ran there in 1957, but no newspaper record of that has turned up. Motorcycles did drag race there on Labor Day 1958. The speedway officially closed in 1979.
More in Georgia
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. 13 Forks Dragstrip early 1960s
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Atlanta International Dragway (Commerce) 1976-2021
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Augusta International Speedway/Dragway (Hephzibah) 1960-63
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Bainbridge Dragway 1960
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Camp Wheeler Drag Strip (Macon) 1957-64?
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Double H Drag Strip (Blue Ridge) 1963-66
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Douglas Motorsports Park (Nicholls)
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Drag City (Ringgold) 1960-84
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Dublin Airport 1956
- Nothing left No longer racing, and nothing of the track remains. Forsyth County Drag Strip/Cumming Dragway 1962-73
- Status unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found. Gainesville Drag Strip 1955-56
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Hinesville Raceway Park 1997-2002