Mountain Park Dragway/Kentucky Dragway (Clay City)
ActiveActive Still racing today.
A drag strip in Clay City near the Red River Gorge that opened in 1963 as Mountain Park Dragway. It now runs IHRA bracket racing under the Kentucky Dragway name, with tickets sold only at the gate.
- Ken-Mor Bluegrass Nationals held every year since 1970
- IHRA National Title Series race on July 16, 1977, with a $15,000 purse and over 300 entries
- Raced
- 1963-present
- State
- Kentucky
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- 1963
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Address
- 718 11th Street
Clay City, KY 40312 - People
- Kennon family, builders and owners
- Sanction
- IHRA
- Elevation
- 638 ft (194 m)
- Coordinates
- 37.84402, -83.91151
Big races
Kings Hammer series
A quarter-mile foot-brake bracket series for 9.0-second-and-slower door cars and bikes, with a runoff among winners to crown a champion.
Modern Street Hemi Shootout
A stop for the Modern Street Hemi series for late-model Hemi cars.
Midwest Drags
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
History
The Kennon family built and owned this track. It opened in 1963 racing on Sundays under NHRA sanction, and later spent many years as an IHRA track running both eighth-mile and quarter-mile races. The Ken-Mor Bluegrass Nationals started there in 1970 and still run. The track got a complete overhaul to host an IHRA National Title Series race on Saturday, July 16, 1977, which paid a $15,000 purse and drew more than 300 competitors. More work in 2001 added new grandstands, bathrooms and concrete barriers. Today it’s called Kentucky Dragway; it spent 2019-21 under NHRA and returned to IHRA in 2022.
Video
More in Kentucky
- Active Still racing today. Beech Bend Raceway Park (Bowling Green) 1956-present
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Bluegrass Dragway (Nicholasville) 1964-81
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Bluegrass Raceway/I-64 Motorplex (Owingsville) 1988-2023
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Brown's Fork Drag Strip (Hazard) 1970s
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Campbell Air Force Base 1957
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Cedar Creek Drag Strip/Bullitt Dragway (Louisville) 1956-72
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Central Kentucky Drag Strip/Campbellsville Dragway 1959-66
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Kentucky Dam State Park Airport (Gilbertsville) 1957
- Active Still racing today. Lake Cumberland Dragway (Jamestown) 1990s-2016, 2023-present
- Active Still racing today. London Dragway 1999-present
- Status unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found. Manchester Dragway/D & J Dragway early 1960s-?
- Active Still racing today. McCracken County Drag Strip/Beacon Dragway (Paducah) 1968-77, 2008, 2013-present