Oklahoma City Drag Strip/Jaycee Drag Strip/Mar-Car Dragway

The Jaycees helped raise $17,000 to build a drag strip on the State Fairgrounds, and racing started in June 1956 on a 3,000-foot strip with seating for 2,000. After two cars rolled heading toward May Avenue in April 1957, officials reversed the direction to run east to west. Weekly races followed, and 1957 ads called it the Jaycee Drag Strip.

NHRA held its third National Championships there over August 30 to September 2, 1957, sponsored by the Oklahoma City Junior Chamber of Commerce with help from the Oklahoma City Timing Association. The asphalt was lengthened to 3,700 feet for more shutdown room. The 450 entrants came from at least 38 states, and NHRA allowed only gasoline, no nitro or exotic fuels, a ban it extended to all its sanctioned strips. Art Arfons had top speed on pump gas, 152.54 mph in his Rolls Royce-powered Green Monster. Buddy Sampson of Phoenix won Top Eliminator in his Olds-powered dragster at 10.42 and 141.50 mph, with Lefty Mudersbach in his pit crew. Graden Miller died of severe burns after his flywheel exploded on opening day, the first death at an NHRA Nationals.

Jimmy Davis of Oklahoma City set a track ET record of 10.11 in A-dragster on April 6, 1958. NHRA’s fourth Nationals ran there August 29 to September 1, 1958, with 500 entries from 37 states, including a car owned by tennis star Pancho Gonzales and driven by his brother Ralph. Lee Christian of Lubbock set a national record of 155.17 mph in his gas dragster on day one. Ted Cyr won top eliminator and the 1958 national title in the Cyr & Hopper dragster, and Junior Thompson won NHRA’s first Little Eliminator in his blown Chevy-powered ‘41 Studebaker B Gasser. Arfons set an A/D national record of 156.24 mph in the Allison V-12 Green Monster II after a 161.67 in qualifying. News reports put the four-day crowd at 50,000.

From August 16, 1959, races were timed over 1,000 feet, reportedly to leave more stopping room. On August 30, 1959, the last day of the International Timing Association’s championships, Bob Langley won top fuel eliminator at 157.34 mph and 5,000 fans watched Dode Martin’s Dragmaster win top gas. Glen Ward of Garden Grove, California, who had beaten Arfons’ Green Monster earlier that day, was hospitalized after his brakes failed and he ran off the end at about 160 mph. An NHRA divisional ran on July 10, 1960. Wayne Burt of Tulsa, driving Bennie Osborn’s dragster, was hurt on August 10, 1962, when he hit vehicles still on the track at over 170 mph after getting the start signal. The strip was called Mar-Car Dragway in 1963, and a two-day NHRA national meet on June 15-16 set several records, including Charlie Smith’s A/A mark and Osborne’s AA/D record of 8.68. In October 1963 Burt sued Mar-Car, Inc., which managed and sponsored the strip, for $142,000, also naming its president Bud Carson, starter Herman Troutman and Osborn. The suit may have led to the strip closing.