San Valley Drag Strip/Oklahoma City Raceway/Stars and Stripes Dragway

When the State Fairgrounds strip closed in 1963, Oklahoma City racers had nowhere to go. Two rival strips opened in 1966: Willowrun under NHRA and San Valley Raceway under AHRA. James W. Nix Sr., father of the drag racer, built San Valley two blocks southwest of Council Road and I-40, starting in October 1965, at a reported cost of about $200,000. He filed incorporation papers on December 8, 1965, with Max Ramos, Oliver “Orby” Hartman and Robert Brown. It opened with a two-day AHRA race on May 7-8, 1966, with bleachers for 2,000. Bob Creitz beat Bobby Langley in a top fuel match race with bests of 7.71 and 202.32 mph, Hardin-Fite-Ross-Leverett of Dallas won top fuel eliminator, and Marvin Graham took Competition Eliminator. Willowrun set six NHRA national records at its own opener. San Valley’s sandy pits and sandy track surface were a drawback. Cars raced west to east.

In early 1967 the family renamed it Oklahoma City Raceway, and Jimmy Nix the racer bought controlling interest, saying he hoped to make it one of the best tracks in the country. He booked big names and made gradual improvements, and in 1972 briefly retired from racing to focus on business and the track. In April 1968 it hosted the two-day AHRA Drag World Fuel and Gas Championships, where Nix beat Bennie Osborn for top fuel at 7.13 and 219.23 mph. On August 16, 1969, Jim Cagle of Odessa, Texas, was killed in time trials in Ray Whisenhunt’s Texas Terror AA/FD. The throttle stuck after a push start, the car crashed through a cyclone fence behind the starting line, and a piece of fence pierced his helmet. The track then dropped fuel dragsters and leaned toward bracket racing.

The shutdown was short and curved slightly to miss the North Canadian River to the south. A racer who ran Wednesday night grudge races in 1972 and 1973 recalled $4 entries, handicapped quarter-mile racing with a dial-in, winners going back in line until two cars were left, and the chance of ending up in the river if you didn’t stop. It was Stars and Stripes Dragway in 1974 and 1975 and held the state championships in 1974. In 1975 it scheduled monthly pro races with fuel dragsters and funny cars and over $100,000 in prize money, but rainouts left it in financial trouble, and it closed for good that year.