Rocket City Drag Strip (Huntsville)

Zeke “Cod” Graham promoted drag races on a runway of the old Huntsville Airport at South Memorial Parkway and Airport Road SW. The municipal airport had operated from 1941 until early 1968. The first event, the Rocket City Nationals, was a two-day NHRA-sanctioned race on February 23-24, 1974, run as a benefit for the Boys and Girls Ranches with an $18,000 purse. A cold front pushed temperatures into the 30s and 40s that weekend, so traction was hard to find. Lamar Walden won pro stock. NHRA regulars Kelly Chadwick and Joe Satmary ran, but the main feature was a match race between Don Garlits’ “Swamp Rat” and Herm Peterson’s innovative, rarely seen “Streamliner” dragster. It lived up to the billing, with an old-school Garlits fire burnout and both nitro rails charging down the runway. About a month later, the April 3, 1974 tornado outbreak devastated the track and the surrounding area of Huntsville. Beyond 1974, only brief notices from 1975-76 have turned up. It may also have been called Huntsville International Speedway or Huntsville Airport Dragway.