Rodd Field (Corpus Christi)

Drag races ran on a runway of this World War II Naval auxiliary airfield, which had four paved runways 6,100 feet long. It was on South Staples Street three miles south of Lexington Boulevard. Racing may have started as early as 1959, since the December 18, 1960, race was billed as the annual Christmas benefit. National Racing Affiliates sponsored races every other Sunday. One was held August 21, 1960, and in October 4,500 spectators watched the Watson-Gillespie Olds-powered dragster win top eliminator. For January 15, 1961, the strip expected 150 entries, including August Hartkoft of Austin, the E/G national record holder, whom newspapers called the biggest man in racing at 6 foot 7 and well over 250 pounds. On February 26, 1961, the Watson-Albright-Gillespie B dragster set a Drag News world record of 9.87 seconds, which earned a paid invitation to the U.S. Fuel and Gas Championships in Bakersfield.

On March 12, 1961, the Jack’s Auto Parts twin-engine dragster from Fort Worth set a strip top speed of 160 MPH, and Gene Perrenot took top eliminator at 151 MPH in the Mackey-Veselka A/D. Rodd Field hosted the Texas Gas Championship on May 7, 1961, with Jack Chrisman’s Howard’s twin-engine dragster among the entries. One racer remembered the shutdown area was covered in pea gravel, so stopping was as exciting as going. In early 1963 there was talk of moving racing elsewhere, possibly near Sinton. That February C. B. Perrenot, who ran the Rodd Field strip, asked the city commission about a strip at Rob and Bessie Welder Park in Sinton. The commission wanted cost estimates, and nothing seems to have come of it. From at least 1965, racing at Rodd Field went on as Seabreeze Drag Strip. Housing developments and parks have since erased every trace of the airfield.