Temple Drag Strip/Little River Dragway (Academy)
ActiveActive Still racing today.
Also known as Temple Academy Drag Strip
Eighth-mile strip on Highway 95 about eight miles south of Temple near Little River-Academy, raced since 1957 and billed as one of the oldest continuously operating IHRA tracks. It runs a busy March to November calendar of brackets, test and tune, motorcycle and specialty events.
- Ran on a stretch of old highway
- Raced
- 1958-present
- State
- Texas
- Raced on
- A public road
- First race
- by August 24, 1958
- Track
- 1/8 mile
- Surface
- Blacktop
- Address
- 13550 State Hwy 95
Holland, TX 76534 - People
- Jerry Tomastik, landowner, later owner-operator (1950s-1970s)
- Jimmy Robinson, early operator (renter) (about 1958-59)
- Al Winters, classifier (1959)
- Harley Doggett, classifier (mid-1960s)
- Sanction
- IHRA
- Elevation
- 403 ft (123 m)
- Coordinates
- 30.96232, -97.34952
Big races
Rumble at the River
Long-running event built around True 10.5 and index classes, with a pre-race index shootout held in 2026.
Showdown at the River / Vintage Drags
Vintage and nostalgia gatherings that bring old gassers, altereds and other period race cars back to the old Temple-area strip.
VTRA V-Twin racing
V-Twin Racing Association motorcycle drag event held late in the season.
Furious Friday test and tune and IHRA bracket racing
Friday night open test and tune plus IHRA Summit SuperSeries bracket and index racing make up the weekly program.
History
Newspaper ads show races at Temple Drag Strip on August 24 and September 14, 1958. Jesse Schrader, who raced there in 1959, remembered that Jimmy Robinson rented the strip from landowner Jerry Tomastik, with Al Winters doing the classifying. The strip ran on the old highway, just west of the new one. When Tomastik saw how well the racing was doing, he ran Robinson off and took over the program himself. The strip got a new coat of blacktop in the spring of 1961. The first race under the Temple Drag Strip name was January 21, 1962, and ads that year placed it on the Taylor Highway with plenty of shade. From about 1968 it was called Temple Academy Drag Strip. Tomastik owned and ran it through the 1960s and 1970s, and Harley Doggett was one of the classifiers in the mid-1960s.
Video
More in Texas
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Abernathy Municipal Airport 1958-60
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Abilene Dragway/Big Country Raceway 1964-75
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Abilene Municipal Airport 1954-57
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Alamo Dragway (San Antonio) 1974-96
- Active Still racing today. Amarillo Dragway 1960-present
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Andrews County Airport (Andrews) 1966-69
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Angleton Dragway/Raceway 2003-10
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Aransas County Airport (Rockport) 1957-58
- Nothing left No longer racing, and nothing of the track remains. Ascarate Park (El Paso) 1960-61
- Nothing left No longer racing, and nothing of the track remains. Austin Raceway Park/Austin Dragway Park 1966-70
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Bergstrom Air Force Base (Austin) 1954
- Closed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there. Big Bend Drag Strip (Alpine) 1968