Terre Haute Drag Strip

This strip was built for drag racing, and its ads called it a custom-built drag strip, unlike the many early strips on airport runways. It was 3,557 feet long and 60 feet wide, with two 20-foot asphalt lanes on a reinforced concrete base separated by a 20-foot parkway. It sat five miles north of Terre Haute, east of U.S. Highway 41. Jim Shaw owned and promoted it, and the Ramblers car club of Terre Haute ran the races. It opened on July 4, 1957. A NASCAR-sanctioned race on October 20, 1957, drew almost 1,500 spectators, and Bert Kesler of Mattoon won top eliminator at 115 mph in his 1923 Model T coupe. In summer 1958 ads offered $50 to anyone who could break the 121 mph track record, another ad promised thrills, chills and speed, and free beans were served on Father’s Day. On May 22, 1960, the Wabash Valley Motorcycle Club held a motorcycle drag meet, and Earl Powell of Cincinnati set a record of 129.505 mph on his Harley. Shaw added a go-kart track next to the strip in 1960. A 1964 article said races were timed over 1/5 mile. In 1965 Shaw turned the strip land into a housing development called Chevelle Subdivision. As of 2015 the strip is East Phyllbeck Avenue in the Shawville subdivision, just south of and parallel to Sky King Airport, which was called Brown’s Flying School in the 1960s.