Salt Lake City Airport No. 2

Salt Lake City commissioners approved a drag race on July 20, 1952, at Salt Lake City Municipal Airport No. 2, west of Midvale, with city police supervising and Norman Hayes of Murray in charge. Cars and motorcycles were timed electrically. The Salt Lake City Motorcycle Club raced there on August 29, 1954, and Hot Rod Magazine ran photos of these early races in December 1954. The Salt Lake Timing Association held quarter-mile races at intervals from June to late September 1955, when the dragsters of Lynn Garrison and Charles Sugden shared the top speed record of 115.38 MPH. Newspapers called 1957 the strip’s fourth year, which may only count the Timing Association’s seasons. The airport was reportedly abandoned.

Races ran every other Sunday in 1957 and 1958 and usually drew about 100 racers, with the biggest field, 180, in June 1956. In 1957 it was one of 90 NHRA-sanctioned tracks in the country. The annual Intermountain Championship Drag Races on September 7-8, 1957, drew entries from at least four states, with trophies for thirty class winners and savings bonds for the top finishers. Duane Wignall came in holding the track record of 130 MPH in the blown Olds-powered Wignall-Noorda dragster, and Dan Noorda raised it to 134.54 MPH running nitro in the Wignall-Noorda Special. For 1958 the city allowed thirteen race dates at $100 a day. The season opener on April 13 drew 1,500 spectators and 122 entries, and the Sugden-Wignall-Burgess dragster won top eliminator at 128 MPH. On May 11 Chuck Sugden set a track record of 143.08 MPH in his fuel dragster. After Salt Lake Raceway opened in 1960, the racing moved there.