Pence Drag Strip/Shelby Dragway (Sidney)

This strip was six miles southwest of Sidney, in what’s now Lockington. According to a farm neighbor, a January 1959 flood at Lockington Dam, just to the south, hit Pence Turkey Farms hard. The turkey operation, which had its own processing plant and raised birds mostly for Thanksgiving, shut down, and bulldozers came in early 1959 to build a drag strip instead. Roy Pence owned it. His nephew Randy Packman, nine at the time, remembered going with him to a race at Kettlersville, where Pence saw the lines of cars and decided that if they could make money at it, so could he. Packman said work started in September 1959 and the strip opened in April 1960, though trophies are verified only from summer 1960 and ads began that year. Larry Miller of Dayton won top eliminator on June 10, 1962, and Ray Timmerman won on September 2, 1962, in his dragster at over 150 mph. Packman, still in high school, ran the strip for his uncle in the mid-1960s.

The operation was leased to a Dayton man in 1969. In 1972 United Enterprises, led by Ted Jones and Raymond Waldron, bought it as the fourth strip in a group that included Van Wert County Dragway, Muncie’s Mid-America Dragway and Kettlersville. They renamed it Shelby, brought in IHRA sanction, made Jim Musson of Dayton manager, and ran Sunday afternoons with lots of match races and exhibitions. George Montgomery raced there several times in his A/GS coupe and beat Jr. Thompson two of three on April 9, 1972, with an 8.54 at 152 mph. On June 7, 1972, four jet dragsters ran: Art Arfons, Dave Corey, Roger Gustin and Mike Evegens. United set up a points chase across its four strips to keep fields full.

United ran the strip until 1975, when Pence leased it back for a share of the profits so his nephew could run it. Packman took over in 1976. He said one of the United principals had run it into the ground, leaving unpaid workers and creditors, so he struggled to get credit. Fields that once drew 200 to 300 cars every Sunday had dropped to 30 or 40. Winning back racers and fans was slow work, but by 1978 the strip was averaging about 150 cars a Sunday. That year is the last time it’s mentioned operating.