Mathis Field (San Angelo)

The first drag race at Mathis Field, a World War II airfield, was held on May 4 by the Throttle Trompers, a YMCA-sponsored car club. The San Angelo Dusters, another YMCA club, then got permission for quarter-mile races twice a month, with police supervising. Cars used a rolling start, timed by four stopwatches, and a local mortuary lent a hearse to serve as an ambulance. The second race, and the Dusters’ first, was on June 1, 1952, with stock, modified stock and hot rod classes and trophies and merchandise for winners. In 1953 races ran on the third Sunday of each month. Racers paid $1.50 and spectators got in free. In 1955 two more San Angelo clubs, the Crankers and Cavaliers, joined in under YMCA sponsorship. On May 22, 1955, Glynn Gray of Dallas set a strip record of 14.5 seconds in a ‘32 Ford altered coupe.

Permission for drag racing was pulled for a few months and restored in October 1955, and the race on October 23 was the last held on the runway. For the next few years several groups tried to bring racing back. In 1957 the city, the county and Goodfellow AFB helped raise $1,500 to widen and lengthen an existing east-west road at the airport for the Chaparrals, a car club at San Angelo High School. The first race on the new strip was March 24, 1957, and the last of several was October 6, 1957. The airport is now San Angelo Regional Airport.