Unnamed drag strip (Oregon)

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Pictured in Hot Rod magazine in May 1954

Raced: 1953
State: Ohio
What's left: The site was redeveloped, but the strip or its layout lives on in whatever replaced it.
On the site today: Houses and a sports complex
Raced on: A public road
First race: by 1953
Track: 1/4 mile
Surface: Concrete
Location: Starr Avenue Extension in Oregon, Ohio, from near Wynn Road toward Stadium (Big Ditch) Road
People: Gordon Nunamaker, organizer (1953)
Warren Bookman, organizer (1953)
Northern Ohio Timing Association, race organizer (1953)
Elevation: 593 ft (181 m)
Coordinates: 41.64566, -83.42258

The Northern Ohio Timing Association held drag races on a two-lane concrete road on the eastern edge of Toledo by at least 1953, and the May 1954 Hot Rod ran a photo of the strip. The exact spot came from a man who later street raced there. He said organizers Gordon Nunamaker and Warren Bookman ran the race on the Starr Avenue Extension in Oregon, Ohio, with cars parked in a field on the west side near Wynn Road and racing toward Stadium Road, then called Big Ditch Road. In the 1960s it was still rural, with one house at the end of the quarter-mile on the left and a few at the end of the road on the right. It’s now built up with houses on both sides and a sports complex. A friend of his who died at 86 had photos of the event showing a big turnout of cars, some from as far as Michigan.

Oregon Starr Avenue Extension drag strip, 1954 USGS topo map

Oregon Starr Avenue Extension drag strip, 1963 aerial view

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