Thompson's Drag Track; Pettus Drag Strip; Lawrenceburg Dragstrip/US 43 Dragway (Ethridge)

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Now called Ethridge Motorsports Park (formerly US 43 Dragway), this eighth-mile strip in Lawrence County has been run by the Burleson family since the 1970s and offers IHRA-sanctioned bracket racing.

Now all concrete with eight acres of paved pits and over 1,600 feet of shutdown

Raced: 1958-present
State: Tennessee
First race: by 1958
Track: 1/8 mile
Surface: Concrete
Address: 29 Dooley Rd
Ethridge, TN 38456
Sanction: IHRA
Elevation: 982 ft (299 m)
Coordinates: 35.32484, -87.28465
Contact: facebook.com/US43Dragway

Big races

Bracket racing (Pro, No Box, Junior Dragster)

March to November · Weekly bracket racing

Regular IHRA-sanctioned bracket program feeding the IHRA Summit SuperSeries, with Pro, No Box and Junior Dragster classes.

Event page

History

This eighth-mile strip was open by 1958 at the latest. It appears in a 1958 aerial photo and in ads in several Tennessee and Alabama papers in early May 1958, which described it as paved and in tiptop shape and offered cash prizes, including $100 for top eliminator. It was called Thompson’s Drag Track in 1958 and Pettus Drag Strip in 1961. On May 21, 1961, Jimmy Crews, 22, of Lawrenceburg was shot at the strip during a fight between youths from Pulaski and Lawrenceburg. A 1968 list of U.S. drag strips in the Swedish magazine Start & Strip included it. In 1977 it was IHRA sanctioned and raced on Sundays. The track, on Dooley Road in Ethridge, is now all concrete, with eight acres of paved pits, six staging lanes and more than 1,600 feet of shutdown.

Video