Strato Rods Dragway (Wrightstown)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Stratorods Dragstrip
- Ran under NHRA rules but unsanctioned over a dispute about fence distance
- Annual March of Dimes meet split a $1,000 prize between the winner and the charity
- Raced
- 1966-83
- State
- New Jersey
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- A military airfield
- Surface
- Runway
- Location
- Unused runway at McGuire Air Force Base, Wrightstown
- People
- U.S. Air Force, sponsor
- Elevation
- 114 ft (35 m)
- Coordinates
- 40.01595, -74.59495
Base personnel talked the commander of McGuire Air Force Base into letting them race on a little-used runway, and the Air Force sponsored the races from April through early November. They ran under NHRA rules but without NHRA sanction, because the Air Force and NHRA disagreed over how far the fence had to be from the track. The strip wasn’t run for profit. Money went back into the operation, and anything left over went to charity. One racer remembered helping set up and tear down in the ’70s and ’80s in exchange for free admission. Matt Delio, stationed at Fort Dix across Texas Avenue before he went to Vietnam, remembered it as a great place to run a street car, a low-budget dragster or a homemade altered, with Sundays spent chasing small trophies or a few dollars and only the occasional shouting match. Once a year there was a March of Dimes meet with a $1,000 top prize, half to the winner and half to the charity, presented to the poster child.
