Road Angels Drag Strip (Gatesville)
Nothing leftNothing left No longer racing, and nothing of the track remains.
- Built on a gravel pit and partly washed out by a Leon River flood in May 1956
- Raced
- 1956
- State
- Texas
- What's left
- The site was never redeveloped, but every trace of the strip has been removed.
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- about February 1956
- Surface
- Gravel
- Location
- Straws Mill Road, 2.5 miles southeast of Gatesville
- People
- Billy Bankhead, landowner (1956)
- Road Angels Hot Rod Club, builder and operator (1956)
- Elevation
- 820 ft (250 m)
- Coordinates
- 31.37250, -97.73331
Billy Bankhead, a founding member of the Road Angels Hot Rod Club of Coryell, Texas, let the club build a gravel drag strip on the land where he ran a gravel pit, 2.5 miles southeast of Gatesville on Straws Mill Road. Racing began around February 1956, in competition with Midway Speedway. In May 1956 the Leon River flooded and washed out part of the track. The club repaired it and held a reopening race on May 20 with 50-cent admission and a free barbecue. Gate money paid for trophies and upkeep. An ad boasted that 308 vehicles had raced there since April 21 without an accident or injury.
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