Redding Dragstrip

History

Bill Wood, Redding’s track manager, has said NHRA lists Redding as a member track from 1953, and that the Shasta Roadsters, the club that started the strip, said some unsanctioned racing went on as early as 1951. Newspapers don’t back that up and point to a later start. In April 1953 Roger Whipp, a founding member of the Shasta Roadsters, told Redding Record-Searchlight columnist John Condit that the club had talked about asking the city council for use of the airport but hadn’t done it yet. Two years later they were still talking. On January 19, 1955 the club held a public meeting at Shasta high school, with NHRA official and former Redding resident Bud Coons there to answer questions. Members said they’d been seeking permission for more than a year and expected an airport commission decision the next week. They weren’t asking for a runway, only an abandoned taxiway east of it that wouldn’t affect air traffic.

After the airport commission approved, the city council agreed on February 21, 1955 and signed the permit on March 21. The city would take 5 percent of gross profits up to $300 and 10 percent above that, and would maintain the strip. The first race was May 15, 1955. Unless NHRA records show otherwise, 1955 looks like the real start, and Redding is still one of the oldest continuously operating strips with a regular program in the country. It sits next to and just east of Redding Municipal Airport, six miles southeast of town.

The Redding Timing Association ran a race on June 5, 1955, where Slim Jokela was fastest on a motorcycle. On July 21, 1957 the Eureka dragster of Doug Luellen and Frank Redden won top eliminator, and through the 1950s racers from Eureka and Redding often visited each other’s strips. Bob Watts of Reno set the B/D national record at 144 mph on May 18, 1958, and the fourth annual Northern California drag races ran here June 28-29, 1958. From 1959 through 1961, and probably later, the Shasta Roadsters ran NHRA-sanctioned races every third Sunday. A May 1960 race drew a record 196 competitors and 1,464 spectators. The Labor Day race ran each year on Sunday and Monday. In 1968 the Northern California Drag Racers Association held a points race at it. Don Argee had top speed of 230 mph in time trials and won top eliminator at 7.57 when Jim Hubert’s engine caught fire on the line, and Dennis Hollingsworth set low ET at 7.42. Argee’s Sacramento AA/FD won again at the season opener on March 16, 1969, at 7.57 and 197.80 mph. Redding still runs under NHRA sanction.