Porterville Municipal Airport
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Porterville Army Airfield
- City council limited entries to cars that couldn't top 140 mph
- Raced
- 1968-ca. 1969?
- State
- California
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- An airport runway
- First race
- 1968
- Surface
- Asphalt (poor condition)
- Location
- Secondary east-west runway at Porterville Municipal Airport
- People
- Porterville Drag Racing Association, operator (1968-69)
- Sanction
- NHRA
- Elevation
- 440 ft (134 m)
- Coordinates
- 36.03072, -119.06066
This pin shares its exact coordinates with another strip in the source data, so it may be misplaced.
In December 1967 the Porterville city council allowed drag racing on the airport’s shorter secondary east-west runway starting in 1968. The Porterville Drag Racing Association ran the races under NHRA sanction. The asphalt was in poor shape, and the council allowed only cars that couldn’t go faster than 140 mph. No bleachers were planned, and everything had to be portable so it could be cleared away after each race. The 1969 season opener on Sunday, March 9 drew 100 entries, and Bill Looney of Visalia won competition eliminator in his Ford T-roadster at 10.67 and 129.31 mph, taking home a trophy and $75. That year the strip was being considered for a circuit with Santa Maria, Salinas and Inyokern. The airport opened in 1942 as Porterville Army Airfield and was handed to the city for civilian use after the war.
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