Unnamed drag strip (Livonia)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- Police-supervised racing on a GM plant road
- Metro Detroit car accidents dropped sharply after it started
- Raced
- 1953-54
- State
- Michigan
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- A public road
- First race
- 1953
- Track
- 3/4 mile (road length)
- Surface
- Concrete
- Location
- Amrhein Road between Eckles Road and Levan Road, the entry road to GM's Chevy plant
- People
- Robert Baumgartner, organizer, Livonia police lieutenant (1953)
- Michigan Hot Rod Association, ran a race (1954)
- Elevation
- 702 ft (214 m)
- Coordinates
- 42.37464, -83.42420
In 1953 Livonia police lieutenant Robert Baumgartner asked General Motors to let racers use a concrete entry road to its new Chevy plant on weekends. The road, Amrhein, ran three-quarters of a mile between Eckles Road and Levan Road. GM agreed, and the police-supervised races were an instant hit. Car accidents in metro Detroit dropped sharply, and the Livonia site eventually drew professional racers. In August 1954 the Michigan Hot Rod Association held a one-day race on the road, blocked off by police, with 93 cars and 4,000 spectators.
More in Michigan
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