Las Cruces Shamrockers Highway drag strips
Status unknownStatus unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found.
- Raced
- 1956-57
- State
- New Mexico
- What's left
- The exact spot was never found. If it's on the map, the pin only marks the general area.
- Raced on
- A public road
- First race
- June 17, 1956 (reported)
- Track
- 1/2 mile
- Location
- Old Highway 70 east of Las Cruces, near the Las Cruces Country Club; first race reportedly on an abandoned highway 25 miles west near the Lazy E Ranch
- People
- Shamrockers, organizer (1956-57)
- Elevation
- 3,991 ft (1,217 m)
- Coordinates
- 32.38795, -106.80664
The Shamrockers, a Las Cruces hot rod club, raced on a stretch of highway outside town, and reports disagree on where. Their first race, reportedly on June 17, 1956, was said to be on an abandoned highway 25 miles west of Las Cruces near the Lazy E Ranch. In February 1957 nearby residents complained to police, and newspapers then placed the racing on old Highway 70 east of town, without giving a distance. At least three Sunday races had been held there, so the club may have moved closer to town after June. They used a half-mile piece of old Highway 70 that no longer carried through traffic but was still a public road residents used to get home. Residents said the racing endangered them and the road wasn’t fit for it, being half uphill and half on a curve. The racers asked the city for help finding a proper strip.
JR Gomolak later pinned down that near-town location. When US 70 was rebuilt from the north end of Las Cruces past the Las Cruces Country Club, the new four-lane went in just north of the old two-lane on the first terrace above the valley. The old road climbed gently for about 3/8 mile, then got steeper and bent slightly north to merge with the new highway where both climbed the second terrace, where I-25 now runs. He said that matches the written descriptions of the strip.