Lawrenceville Municipal Airport

Arnold Maremont, the Chicago manufacturer who had helped fund the Half Day strip in 1952, promoted a two-day race called the World Series of Drag Racing on October 1-2, 1954, sponsored by the Automobile Timing Association of America. It ran at George Field, the Lawrenceville airport, which had a concrete surface. The event drew 350 competitors and thousands of spectators and got wide newspaper coverage. Art Arfons, 24, of Dayton, Ohio, won with his 4,000-pound, six-wheeled, aircraft-engined Green Monster at 132.35 mph, taking the Maremont Speed Trophy and a $1,000 scholarship. Holly Hedrick, a 24-year-old sailor from Memphis, was second in a 1,000-pound fiberglass car, the lightest there, and Joaquin Arnett was third in the Bean Bandits car from San Diego. George Smith of Chicago had the fastest motorcycle at 115.38 mph.

A regular drag race ran at the airport on May 15, 1955. The second World Series, on August 17-21, 1955, used one of the main runways, 5,200 feet long, and on August 20 Lloyd Scott set a world record of 151.007 mph in his twin-engine, 700-horsepower “Bustle Bomb” dragster. The third World Series ran four days, August 21-22 and 25-26, with half-mile timed runs on a mile-long runway instead of the quarter mile. Trophies went to 29 classes, with gas and fuel cars separated. Art Arfons, described as a chicken feed salesman from Akron, took top speed with his Allison-powered Green Monster and set a track record of 152.452 mph.