Raleigh County Memorial Airport (Beckley)
Status unknownStatus unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found.
- The airport manager allowed racing over State Police objections until the county court banned it
- Raced
- 1964-65
- State
- West Virginia
- What's left
- How much of the site survives hasn't been checked yet.
- Raced on
- An airport runway
- Last race
- early 1965
- Surface
- Runway
- Location
- Three miles east of Beckley
- Elevation
- 2,364 ft (720 m)
- Coordinates
- 37.79349, -81.13326
Over about four months, the manager of the county airport three miles east of Beckley allowed drag races there at least twice, reasoning that the weather was keeping normal flying from happening anyway. State troopers tried to stop the racing, but he said they had no authority to. In late February or early March 1965 the county court banned any further racing at the airport, which led to the founding of the Beckley Auto Club. That same year Chuck Allen said he was building the Grandview drag strip in Beckley.
Background
The field dates to 1950-52, when it was built with a single 4,200-foot east-west runway, and the county's airport authority owns and runs it. Today it handles general aviation and one airline route subsidized through the Essential Air Service program.