Southland Dragway (Houma)

Luke Grezzafi built Southland on a former golf course on West Park Avenue in Gray, northwest of Houma, and the old pro shop became the track office. It opened July 4, 1969, with Glenn Menard managing, and had covered grandstands, an eight-sided tower and finish-line scoreboards. On Sunday, September 14, 1969, Don Prudhomme beat Arthur Ingleharte of New Orleans in a best-of-three match race, with a best of 7.06 at 207.37 mph. Ingleharte won the second round with a track-record 6.90. The first Bayou Championships, in early November 1969, paid a $10,000 purse.

When Menard left for college in 1970, announcer Dave McClelland took over, and Menard came back in 1971 after Dallas International Raceway hired McClelland away. Southland hosted an NHRA divisional points race on May 22-23, 1971 with more than 400 entries. In early July it took a second divisional meet on short notice after the financially troubled Dallas International Motor Speedway switched to IHRA. That helpfulness counted toward NHRA naming Southland the South Central Division track of the year for 1971.

On Sunday, February 27, 1972, 5,000 people saw Don Schumacher beat the Ramchargers funny car in a match race at 209 mph. A dozen national records fell at the divisional race on May 27-28, 1972, and Leonard Hughes won Funny Car over Grover Rogers in the Candies & Hughes ‘Cajun Cuda’ at 6.74 and 221.64 mph. Rock concerts started in 1972. At a rock festival on October 21, 1973, police arrests of marijuana users set off trouble among the 10,000 fans, and extra officers had to restore order in what newspapers called a riot. After Menard, operators included original founder Ralph Baker, Norman ‘Moose’ Pearah and a local group led by Joe Teuton. That last group added lights for night racing, but a season of rainouts closed the track. Racer Duke McDonald remembered it as a West Coast-style track in the South, with a round three-story tower and scoreboards ahead of their time. He raced there under Pearah, when it was very bumpy, and loved it.