Lebanon Valley Speedway/Dragway (West Lebanon)
ActiveActive Still racing today.
NHRA quarter-mile strip on Route 20 near the Massachusetts line, next to the Lebanon Valley Speedway dirt oval and open since 1963. It runs a busy calendar of Summit ET, Wednesday street nights, NHRA divisional races, big bracket weekends and the Dover Nostalgia Drags.
- Don Garlits match raced A&B Speed Shop on July 18, 1965
- Daniel Rini ran into a stream at 190 MPH in 1965 and walked away
- Raced
- 1963-present
- State
- New York
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- August 18, 1963 (reported)
- Sanction
- NHRA Division 1
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Address
- 1746 US Route 20
West Lebanon, NY 12195 - People
- Lou Spanier, operator
- Harry Spanier, operator
- Elevation
- 605 ft (184 m)
- Coordinates
- 42.49228, -73.49004
Big races
Dover Nostalgia Drags
Reunion of the old Dover Drag Strip crowd with vintage drag racing, a car show and swap meet.
NHRA Northeast Division events
Lebanon Valley hosts a Division 1 regional for sportsman racers and the division's bracket and junior finals.
Funny Car Spectacular and Night of Fire
Spring funny car show with Musclemania car show, plus a summer night program of jet and exhibition cars.
NYS Drag 'N' Drive
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
History
Lou and Harry Spanier ran this half-mile high-banked oval on Route 20 in West Lebanon, halfway between Albany and Pittsfield. In July 1962 newspapers reported the speedway was building a $125,000 quarter-mile drag strip behind the oval, a mile long overall and sixty feet wide. It reportedly opened August 18, 1963 under NHRA sanction. In 1964 it raced every Sunday except the first of the month, added a new concession building and covered the timing tower in black and white glass block. By 1965 it raced every Sunday. Don Garlits match raced A&B Speed Shop, billed as the fastest unblown fuel dragster in the country, on July 18, 1965. On Labor Day, September 6, 1965, Daniel Rini of West Ontario, Canada, was going for the track record before 1,500 spectators when his engine blew at 190 MPH and sprayed oil in his face. He ran off the end of the track into a stream a few inches deep and wasn’t hurt. The strip was first NHRA sanctioned in 1966 and still runs as an NHRA quarter-mile. A 1978 Pittsfield newspaper said Shirley Muldowney got her start in the late 1950s at West Lebanon in a modified sports car, which must have been on the oval, since the drag strip came several years later.
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