St. Thomas Dragway/London Motorsports Park/St. Thomas Raceway Park (Sparta)
ActiveActive Still racing today.
A quarter-mile concrete strip near Sparta, south of London, that has run since 1962 and claims to be Canada's longest continuously operating dragway. New owners plan to return it to the London Motorsports Park name for 2027.
- Don Garlits set a track record of 8.19 in 1963
- Grossed $65,000 over 21 race days in its first year
- Raced
- 1962-present
- Province
- Ontario
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- July 2, 1962
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Surface
- Concrete
- Address
- 45633 Sparta Line
St. Thomas, ON N5P 3S8 - People
- R. L. Harvey, builder and owner (1962-)
- John and Sharon Fletcher, owners (1990-98)
- Dave and Linda Mathers, owners (1998-2020)
- Spriet group, owner (2020-)
- Sanction
- NHRA
- Elevation
- 738 ft (225 m)
- Coordinates
- 42.69902, -81.09937
- Contact
- stthomasdragway.ca
Big races
Weekend points racing
A season-long bracket points program, with eighth-mile days mixed in.
Dragway Rush
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
History
R. L. Harvey spent nearly $100,000 building this strip on a 150-acre field across the road from his farm. He said most people thought it was a wild idea and expected him to go broke within a year. Instead he grossed $65,000 over 21 race days the first year, averaging 2,500 spectators. The first race, run by the St. Thomas Gear Jammers Club, was on July 2, 1962. The second season’s opener drew 5,200. In mid-summer 1963 Don Garlits set a track record of 8.19. Two-day NHRA regionals started in 1966. One old-timer remembered that part of the pits sat in an old apple orchard, so working under a car meant lying on rotten apples.
John and Sharon Fletcher bought the track in 1990 and renamed it London Motorsports Park. In 1998 Dave and Linda Mathers bought it and renamed it St. Thomas Raceway Park. Dave had been the track announcer in the 1970s. In 2020 the track joined the Spriet group of companies, which brought back the St. Thomas Dragway name and made major improvements for 2021, since the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 season.
Video
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