Lewistown Raceway/King Cam Dragway

History

The Road Sturs car club formed in 1956 and got permission to hold its first drag race at the old Army Air Base three miles southwest of Lewistown over Memorial Day weekend 1957. NHRA sanctioned the race. On May 2-3, 1959, about 1,500 people came to town for a two-day car show and drag race on Lewistown’s main street, sponsored by the Road Sturs and the Central Montana Timing Association. Some of the crowd got unruly and several people were arrested, and many racers worried the behavior of a few would hurt the event’s future. In 1960 a new hot rod group, the Quarter Milers club, took over running the races.

Bob Todd came on as track manager in 1966, made a number of improvements and renamed the place King Cam Dragway. Governor Tim Babcock opened the renamed strip for the season on Sunday, May 29, 1966. Organizers expected 4,000 spectators and 250 racers, and Dave Strickler of Denver and Richard Blea of Billings were scheduled to run their fuel dragsters. In 1968 it was called Golden Rods Raceway.

A history of the track by Dick Hoffman, posted on the Lewistown Raceway website, says that by 1968 a new group, the Central Montana Racing Association (CMRA), was running the struggling strip: George Stewart, Larry Barrick, John Wicks, Leo Walsh, and Wayne and Whaley Pallett. Track manager Gene Jackson put up the first announcing booth, where C.R. Leverett of KOYN radio in Billings and Don Ayers of Grass Range called the races. All the equipment had to be hauled off after every race so it wouldn’t get in the way of airport traffic.

The muscle car years of the late ’60s and early ’70s were good to the track, and turnouts kept beating expectations. While GM, Ford and Chrysler had factory cars on the strips, local rancher and racer Dale Krider and his engineer friend and mechanic Dick Erlandson landed a factory-sponsored 1969 AMC Rambler AMX through Herb Jones of Western Motors and drove to Oakland, California, to pick it up. Only 52 were built in that configuration. Western Motors, the AMC dealer, stood where Smarts Abbey carpet is now. Dick match raced the AMX against cars like Missoula racer Dave Wren’s ‘63 factory Plymouth Ramcharger, which nearly swept the 1969 U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Bill Spevacek of Geraldine ran a Top Fuel Funny Car at NHRA national events. He thrilled crowds with long, smoky burnouts and with runs where he’d go off into the grass, get the car back and still go through the traps at over 200 MPH without lifting.

By 1976 loose asphalt, big potholes and gravel had made the surface unsafe, and the track closed for two years. Erlandson tried to raise repaving money by asking each racer to put in $100 for reduced admission and a charter membership in the CMRA. When that fell short, he personally signed an $18,500 bank note. With volunteers from Cut Bank, Great Falls and Billings and help from Century Paving of Lewistown, he paved the whole track and added guardrails, restrooms, a ticket booth and a new timing tower.

The three-year agreement between Dick, the CMRA and the Airport Board ran out in 1981, and the track stayed shut for the 1982 season. When local racers asked what was happening, the CMTA was approached again to run it. The Airport Board had wanted a local group in charge, believing local citizens would keep better control of day-to-day operations. Local businessman Norm Bawden was the only one who showed interest, and he didn’t want to run the track himself. After a lot of negotiation he signed a one-year contract, the board let the CMTA operate, and Lewistown Raceway reopened in 1983 with very little work done.

The CMTA kept the track in racing shape through a weak economy. A concrete starting pad and other improvements earned it a five-year lease from the Airport Board. Weather was a problem too: one year, only three of 11 scheduled races were finished. Members signed for a loan to buy updated timing equipment, and permanent power replaced the generators. By 1999 rumors had the CMTA giving up. An emergency meeting drew a big crowd of local racers, and they formed the Lewistown Drag Racers Association (LDRA), which took over the concessions and stood ready to take the track if the CMTA quit.

The CMTA withdrew from track management in 2003, and the LDRA took over for the 2004 season. Its core members were Bob Olson, Warren Ayers, Dean Stapleton, James Phelps, Brian and Kevin Olson, Doug Peterschick, Darla Richards, John Wicks, and Glenn and Rod Richards. The Billings Drag Racers Association, friend Syl Schied and BDRA members loaned and then sold their timing equipment to the LDRA. The club has since built new restrooms, concessions and return roads, added firefighting and rescue equipment, and started running two races on one weekend, which saves distant racers a trip and brings business to town. It kept NHRA’s High School Drags program, which debuted at Lewistown 20 years earlier, and has run the NHRA Jr. Dragster program since it began in 1992. Planned work at the time included concrete walls to replace the old metal guardrails, new scoreboards and backup timing equipment.