Rankin Field (Tulare)

Closed

Ed Losinski and Harry Duncan's dragsters drew 1,300 fans to the 1955 race

Raced: 1955, 1957
State: California
What's left: A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
On the site today: Shooting range
Raced on: A military airfield
First race: April 17, 1955
Surface: Dirt
Location: Seven miles southeast of Tulare
People: Tulare Dash Hounds car club, race organizer (1955)
Elwood 'Bunny' Lancaster, strip director (1955)
San Joaquin Valley Timing Association, race organizer (1957)
Elevation: 298 ft (91 m)
Coordinates: 36.15296, -119.25784

Rankin Field, seven miles southeast of Tulare, was a dirt airfield built in 1941 to train Army Air Corps pilots. It was sold after the war and became a private airfield, and today it’s a shooting range. The Tulare Dash Hounds car club held a race on the dirt strip on April 17, 1955, with thirty classes. The dragsters of Ed Losinski and Harry Duncan drew a crowd of 1,300. Duncan won their match race at 126 mph, while Losinski held back because the shutdown area was short. Elwood ‘Bunny’ Lancaster directed the strip. In August 1957 the Tulare city council approved races by the San Joaquin Valley Timing Association once or twice a month, but only for stock cars. One or two were held before a manufacturer leasing airport property complained that race fans were trespassing on his land. It isn’t known whether racing went on after that.

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