Santa Maria Dragway/Golden State Raceway
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- Hosted the Central Coast NHRA Regional Championship Drags in June 1954
- Raced
- 1953-69
- State
- California
- What's left
- You can still spot it in aerial photos, or broken pieces of the track surface remain.
- On the site today
- West Foster Road; no trace of the strip
- Raced on
- A military airfield
- Surface
- Taxiway
- Location
- Abandoned taxiway at Santa Maria Army Air Field, under today's West Foster Road, due south of Santa Maria Public Airport
- People
- Dragons Car Club, organizer
- Steve Evans, ran the track
- Sanction
- NHRA
- Elevation
- 252 ft (77 m)
- Coordinates
- 34.88716, -120.45237
Santa Maria city officials let the Dragons Car Club race on an abandoned taxiway at Santa Maria Army Air Field. Steve Evans, the late drag racing announcer, ran the track, and Don Jensen helped build the strip in 1953. The 1954 season opened April 4 with races on the first Sunday of each month, and the Central Coast NHRA Regional Championship Drags ran June 12-13, 1954. NHRA-sanctioned races were held on the first Sunday in 1959 and 1960 and moved to the second Sunday in 1961. In 1969 the track moved farther west to an unused runway at the north end of today’s South Blosser Road and was renamed Golden State Raceway. Nothing is left of the original strip, which ran roughly under today’s West Foster Road, due south of Santa Maria Public Airport.
Background
The old Army field is now Santa Maria Public Airport, also called Capt. G. Allan Hancock Field, three miles south of Santa Maria.
Video
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