Langhorne Speedway

Work began on a quarter-mile asphalt drag strip in the infield of the Langhorne Speedway oval in April or May 1958, though races ran over an eighth-mile under Eastern Hot Rod Association sanction. It opened on July 4, 1958. That first season had weekly Sunday races from May through December, 42 classes and about 150 cars a week. Bill Holz of Drag News wrote in August 1958 that the meets ran smoothly, but he disliked the hub rail along the edge of the strip, which left a driver who lost control of a rail job no room to recover.

The track record reached 107 MPH in early July 1958, and electronic timing arrived in April 1959. Bill Winterbottom set a record of 7.23 at 127.80 MPH in his Buick-powered B dragster on July 24, 1960. On November 6, 1960, Joe Jacono of Chester ran 139.65 MPH in his supercharged Buick-powered dragster, a track record and a national eighth-mile mark. At the same meet Walt Arfons made a 90 MPH pass in his first jet “Green Monster.” Promoter Al Gerber brought Art Arfons and his Allison-engined “Green Monster II” for exhibition runs on November 5, 1961, and booked other names such as Lyle Fisher’s Speed Sport Roadster. The two-day Labor Day race drew good crowds and plenty of racers.

Construction work on the oval kept the drags from running in 1965, and they never came back, though oval racing went on until at least about 1971. The speedway’s prime real estate location is what doomed it.