Red Lodge Airport/Golden Rods Drag Strip
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- A plane had to abort a landing because dragsters were on the runway
- Nostalgia drag racing returned with the Cruisen Red Lodge show by 2012
- Raced
- 1964-65, ca. 2012-present
- State
- Montana
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- An airport runway
- Surface
- Runway
- Location
- Red Lodge Airport
- People
- Golden Rods Car Club, sponsor (1965)
- Sanction
- NHRA
- Elevation
- 5,744 ft (1,751 m)
- Coordinates
- 45.18515, -109.25691
In August 1965 the Montana Aeronautics Commission was considering a ban on drag racing at the state’s airports. One reason was an incident at the Red Lodge Airport during a race, when a plane trying to land had to pull up and go around because dragsters were on the runway. Tougher rules didn’t come right away, and the Golden Rods Car Club of Billings sponsored an NHRA-sanctioned race at the airport on October 3, 1965. No newspaper record of races after 1965 has been found, but the strip was on a list of 325 U.S. drag strips published in 1968 by the Swedish magazine Start & Strip. By 1967 the Golden Rods were sponsoring races in Greybull, Wyoming.
The Cruisen Red Lodge Car and Bike Show, a three-day event usually held in July, started in 2010. It has included a nostalgia drag race at the airport since at least 2012, and possibly earlier.
More in Montana
- Active Still racing today. Big Sky Dragway/Spike Naranche Memorial Dragway/Lost Creek Raceway (Anaconda) 1966-present
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Billings Municipal Airport 1955-58
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Butte Airport 1957-62
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Conrad Airport 1961
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Copper City Road Angels drag strip (Butte) 1956
- Status unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found. Electric City Dragway/Great Falls Dragway 1969-71
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Gallatin Field (Belgrade) 1958-60
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Glasgow Air Force Base (St. Marie) 1969
- Active Still racing today. Hi-Line Dragstrip (Malta) ca. 2008-present
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Hustler's Dragway (Glendive) 1969-82
- Active Still racing today. Lewistown Raceway/King Cam Dragway 1957-present
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Malmstrom Air Force Base 1955