Long Beach Associated/Lions Drag Strip

Lions Drag Strip took two years of planning, permit fights and other setbacks before it opened on October 9, 1955. Eleven Long Beach-area Lions Clubs raised $45,000 to build the track, 60 feet wide and 3,500 feet long. That money fell short, so the rest was built on credit and paid off in the first two years. The strip sat on land leased from the Los Angeles Harbor Department in Wilmington, with its entrance on 223rd Street, 1,000 feet east of Alameda Street. It was formally dedicated on September 15, 1955.

Opening day drew more than 10,000 spectators and over 400 racers, so many that some cars were turned away. There were thirty classes, and racers paid $1.25 while spectators paid 75 cents. Eddie Losinski had top speed at 151.26 mph. Lloyd Scott, who had run a world record 152.02 mph in his two-engined Bustle Bomb at San Fernando earlier that same day, went 145.39 mph. On November 13 Losinski set a world mark for single-engine dragsters, 151.51 mph in his Chrysler-powered car. Many more national records fell here over the years, and nearly every big name of the era raced at Lions, including Don Garlits, Don Prudhomme, Tom McEwan, Tommy Ivo, Doug ‘Cookie’ Cook, Big John Mazmanian, Jumpin’ Jeep Hampshire, Romeo Palimedes, Art Malone, Art Chrisman and Chris Karamasines. Racers liked its dense sea-level air and good traction.

Mickey Thompson managed the track for ten years. He added lights for night racing on July 7, 1956, and Lions was the first strip to use a Christmas tree starting system. At one Saturday night race in August 1958, 315 cars entered, and after 6,000 people got in, officials turned away about 2,000 more. C. J. ‘Pappy’ Hart, who had run racing at Santa Ana Drag Strip, took over in 1965. He promoted well for a few years, but by the late 1960s he was at odds with the Lions Club board and the Harbor Commission, who opposed his running more of the popular top fuel shows. Hart retired in 1971 and handed the track to Steve Evans, who renovated it and had a very profitable year, giving $70,000 of that year’s profits to the Lions Club charity fund on top of more than $300,000 donated over the track’s life.

As the area around the track filled with people, complaints to officials grew, and noise complaints going back to 1956 brought things to a head. After the final race on December 23, 1972, the Los Angeles Harbor Commission revoked the track’s permit. The strip sat unused for a long time before the commission tore it up and built a large yard for overseas shipping containers. Thirteen drivers were killed racing at Lions, more than at any other strip in the country. Dave Gendian was the first, and others included Boyd Pennington, Leonard Harris and Joe ‘The Jet’ Jackson.