Osceola Dragway
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- Was the oldest single-operator drag strip in the country when Arthur Chizum died in 2000
- Racing direction was reversed after cars jumped the berm onto State Route 219
- Raced
- 1957-2020
- State
- Indiana
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Last race
- 2020 season
- Address
- 56328 Ash Road, Osceola
- People
- Arthur Chizum, founder, owner and operator (1957-2000)
- Ruth Chizum, operator (2000-)
- Sanction
- IHRA, NHRA
- Elevation
- 734 ft (224 m)
- Coordinates
- 41.67630, -86.05556
Arthur Chizum founded this strip at 56328 Ash Road in Osceola. When he died in 2000 at 81, he had owned and run it for 43 years, making it the oldest drag strip in the country with a single operator. His widow, Ruth, kept it going. Two fatal accidents happened there, in 1969 and 2008. Cars originally raced toward State Route 219, and the shutdown ended just short of the road at a dirt berm meant to keep cars off the highway. Several cars jumped the berm and crossed the highway anyway, so the track reversed direction and ran toward a safer cornfield. It was IHRA-sanctioned for most of its life, with a few brief years under NHRA. The track went up for sale in 2016 but kept racing until a pandemic-shortened 2020 season, after which the owners decided not to reopen in 2021.
Video
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