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Luke Auxiliary Field No. 3

ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.

Also known as Marauders Associated Drag Strip

Raced
1952, 1958-59
State
Arizona
What's left
You can still spot it in aerial photos, or broken pieces of the track surface remain.
Raced on
A military airfield
Surface
Paved runway, 3,800 feet
Location
Twenty-two miles northwest of Phoenix, 3/4 mile south of Grand Avenue on Litchfield Road
People
  • Kluster Busters car club, race organizer (1952)
  • Southwest Timing Association, race organizer (1958)
  • Jim Sillett, track manager (1958-59)
Sanction
NHRA
Elevation
1,207 ft (368 m)
Coordinates
33.63057, -112.36668

Top Speed Magazine reported that the Kluster Busters car club held weekly drag races at this airfield in 1952. The longest of its four runways was a 3,800-foot paved strip. In 1958, after being barred from racing at Perryville, the Southwest Timing Association got permission to use Auxiliary Field No. 3, which the federal government was in the middle of selling to local government. It had water and electricity. Jim Sillett managed the track, calling it the Marauders Associated Drag Strip, and repaved it in early 1959 ahead of the NHRA Western Regional Drag Race Championships on March 7-8, run by the Valley Timing Association. Several national records fell on the first day, but on the second day NHRA withdrew its sanction and the strip lost its insurance, leaving more than 200 racers from California, Arizona and New Mexico stranded. Whether the March 8 racing went ahead isn’t known. The field was twenty-two miles northwest of Phoenix, three-quarters of a mile south of Grand Avenue on Litchfield Road.

A B/R is given the starter's flag at Associated Drag Strip. Photo published in Arizona Republic, Mar. 8, 1959
A B/R is given the starter's flag at Associated Drag Strip. Photo published in Arizona Republic, Mar. 8, 1959
Photo taken in 2019
Photo taken in 2019
I think the drag strip ran on the eastern north-south runway. There is no documentation specifically pointing to that being the strip, but something mentioned in newspapers and old aerial photos leads me to pick that. There are a couple of reasons that I have picked this runway. First, newspapers always said that it was on Litchfield Road. The north-south runway parallels Litchfield Road. Second, an Arizona Republic (1/6/59) article stated that they were going to repave a 1320-foot section, with an additional 2,880 feet of the old asphalt surface for shutdown, and an additional 1,200 feet of hard-packed dirt beyond for more shutdown if needed. Looking at a 1958 aerial photo, the most likely place for the additional hard-packed dirt area would be on the south side of the north-south runway on the east side of the triangle. That is my best guess.
I think the drag strip ran on the eastern north-south runway. There is no documentation specifically pointing to that being the strip, but something mentioned in newspapers and old aerial photos leads me to pick that. There are a couple of reasons that I have picked this runway. First, newspapers always said that it was on Litchfield Road. The north-south runway parallels Litchfield Road. Second, an Arizona Republic (1/6/59) article stated that they were going to repave a 1320-foot section, with an additional 2,880 feet of the old asphalt surface for shutdown, and an additional 1,200 feet of hard-packed dirt beyond for more shutdown if needed. Looking at a 1958 aerial photo, the most likely place for the additional hard-packed dirt area would be on the south side of the north-south runway on the east side of the triangle. That is my best guess.

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