Malden Air Base/SEMO Drag Strip

The first drag race on the Malden Air Base runway, on June 11, 1961, came before an air show. The first big race at what was called SEMO (or S. E. Mo.) Drag Strip ran July 30, 1961. That race and the regular ones after it, on the second and fourth Sundays, were sponsored by the Southeast Missouri Dragsters and the Malden Jaycees and held on a 3,000-foot runway at the back of the base. Racers turned off Highway 25 a mile north of the main gate and drove west 1.5 miles to the entrance. Class winners got trophies. Ron Dent won top eliminator at 9.69 and 149 mph in his B dragster on September 10, 1961, and Ray Godman’s ‘Tennessee Boll-Weevil’ appeared on October 8. The strip was NHRA-sanctioned from the start. Jim New was tech man from 1961 to 1964 and managed the strip in 1967. That year the FAA shut it down over concern that planes with mechanical trouble might be forced to land on it. Start & Strip still listed it among 325 U.S. strips in 1968, and it reopened once more on November 1, 1970 for a big altered meet.