Sportsman's Park Drag Strip (Keokuk)

Closed

Raced: 1960-61
State: Iowa
What's left: You can still spot it in aerial photos, or broken pieces of the track surface remain.
On the site today: Site of Lee County Dragway from 1969
Raced on: Built as a drag strip
First race: by June 1960
Last race: 1961
Track: 1,400 feet (probably 1/8 mile)
Surface: Dirt, then paved with a concrete starting pad in 1961
Location: Next to the Sportsman's Park dirt oval, Keokuk
People: L. R. Jones, owner and builder (1961)
Joe Hickey, owner and builder (1961)
Marie Hamilton, owner and builder (1961)
Elevation: 651 ft (198 m)
Coordinates: 40.40859, -91.43311

Drag races ran every Saturday night on a 1,400-foot strip beside a dirt oval for semi-modified stock cars, which was also called Sportsman’s Park. News stories didn’t say, but the short length suggests an eighth-mile strip. Racing started by June 1960 at the latest, and it must have been on dirt, since work on a 35-foot concrete starting pad and paving didn’t begin until May 1, 1961. The main owners and builders were L. R. Jones and two Keokuk residents, Joe Hickey and Marie Hamilton. They hoped to open on May 14 and race every other weekend. More than fifty entries were expected on July 15, 1961, for $150 in prize money and trophies, among them Gale Frakes of Galesburg, Illinois, whose dragster had been unbeatable there. Nothing has turned up about racing after 1961. Lee County Dragway opened on the site in 1969.

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