Speed's New Hope Dragstrip

ActiveActive Still racing today.

Also known as Freedom New Hope Drag Strip

Raced
1969-present
State
Indiana
Raced on
Built as a drag strip
First race
by 1969
Track
1/8 mile
Surface
Concrete
Address
7848 Villas Rd.
Spencer, IN 47429
People
  • Kenneth "Speed" Wise, builder, owner and operator (until 1990)
Sanction
NHRA
Elevation
522 ft (159 m)
Coordinates
39.17633, -86.82972
Contact
[email protected]

This concrete eighth-mile strip was open by 1969 at the latest. Kenneth “Speed” Wise built, owned and ran it until his death in 1990. It’s a couple of miles southeast of Freedom, just south of the village of New Hope. On April 15, 1969, it held a super stock match race between Jerry Rone’s Camaro and Richard Bowen’s Barracuda. On Sunday, June 11, 1972, John Cary of Linton, Indiana, set a track record in AF/SA at 8.73 seconds, the day after setting an IHRA eighth-mile record of 8.70 at Kettlersville, Ohio. In the 1980s it was often called Freedom New Hope Drag Strip and ran under NHRA sanction. Known as a friendly place, it still races weekly.

Video

Video footage of racing at New Hope Dragstrip in 2014, 0.44 minutes Watch on YouTube

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