Magnolia Motorsports Park

History

The Magnolia airport was built sometime between 1945 and 1951, and its paved northeast-southwest runway became the drag strip. Track manager Jim Kinney recalled that Dan Larsen pitched the idea of racing on the runway, and Larsen ran quarter-mile racing there until the late 1960s. When racing began in 1959 it was called Magnolia Speed Track, Inc. The season opener on May 3, 1959, drew 215 cars and 2,800 spectators, and Doyle Doolin of New Philadelphia won top eliminator at 112 mph and 12.50 in his roadster. On May 17, Bob Moughler of Akron had the fastest time, 100 mph in 12.8 seconds on his motorcycle. The season championship ran June 28. Blaine Shively set a track record of 144.25 mph in his A/FD in July 1960.

Races were on Sundays early on and moved to Saturdays when Gary Ralston ran the track. Super stock, modified and bracket racing were regular fare in the 1970s, with an occasional match race. Ralston was getting ready for the 1978 season when he fell out with the airport owners, and that ended drag racing at Magnolia for seventeen years. In 1994 Bruce and Dixie McCreery got approval to restart it, limiting races to an eighth-mile for safety because of the speeds. Dixie McCreery retired in 2011, and Tad Ries and Jim Rankl bought the remaining two years of the lease and the whole operation. As of 2015 it was running as Tad and Jim’s Dragway of Magnolia.