Sampson Drag Strip
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- More than 5,000 people attended the 1957 New York State championship
- Racing ended when the Army took over the base
- Raced
- 1957
- State
- New York
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- On the site today
- Airstrip still exists, used for police pursuit training; part of the base is a state park
- Raced on
- A military airfield
- First race
- May 26, 1957
- Last race
- September 29, 1957
- Surface
- Runway
- Location
- Former Sampson Air Force Base airstrip, east shore of Seneca Lake, southeast of Geneva
- People
- Empire State Timing Association, sanctioning body and race operator (1957)
- Sanction
- NHRA
- Elevation
- 592 ft (180 m)
- Coordinates
- 42.71575, -76.88925
Sampson Air Force Base sat on the east shore of Seneca Lake, southeast of Geneva. After the Korean War ended and military budgets were cut, it went on standby in late 1956. On May 26, 1957, its airstrip held its first drag race, sanctioned by the Empire State Timing Association and affiliated with NHRA. Nate Hughes took top eliminator at 108.43 MPH in the Arden-Merc-powered “Lil’ Stinker.” Doug Hughson of Canandaigua won A/S in his 1957 Chevy at 88.56 MPH on June 9. More than 5,000 people came to the two-day New York State championship on August 17-18, 1957, with racers from four states and Canada. Davey Edwards of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, set a strip record of 119.20 MPH in his dragster, and class winners got blue ribbons. The last race was September 29, 1957, after racers were told the Army was taking over the facility. Most of the old base is abandoned now, with part of it a state park and the rest put to other uses. The airstrip, built around 1953, is still there and has been used recently for police high-speed pursuit training.
