Olathe Naval Air Station

About 800 racers ran in the Kansas City Philharmonic’s “Speed for Sound” drag race on a runway at Olathe Naval Air Station on August 25-27, 1972, the third year of the orchestra benefit. The 1970 and 1971 events had been SCCA road races at Olathe, but the cost of setting up a road course ate most of the money, so organizers switched to drag racing and got AHRA to put on a Grand American race. Entrants included Don Garlits, John Wiebe, Jim Nicoll, Chris Karamesines, Jeb Allen, Leroy Goldstein, Gene Snow, Don Prudhomme, Tom McEwen, Bob Lambeck, Don Nicholson and Bill Jenkins. Garlits loved the setup and described a track about 300 feet wide and two miles long with huge paved pits. Thirty-two AHRA records fell. Garlits set a top fuel speed mark of 237.46 mph and won top fuel, McEwen set a funny car mark of 6.52 seconds and won funny car, and Jim Hayter won pro stock. More than 30,000 spectators left a mountain of trash behind, which gave the military no reason to have them back, and they never returned.