Thunder Road Dragway/Denver International Raceway/Dragway Denver

This track was northeast of Denver, southeast of Buckley Road and 96th Avenue, near today’s Commerce City area. One online source says it opened in 1960. The earliest year found in newspapers and aerial photos is 1964, though it may be older, and fans remember going in 1965 and 1967. It went through several names: Rocky Mountain Raceway or Mile High Dragway, then Thunder Road, then Denver International Raceway or Dragway in 1971, and Dragway Denver in 1975. Jim Tibbitts was managing it by 1977.

On Sunday, May 24, 1970, Roy Pearman of Kansas broke a leg and was burned when his AA/FD blew its engine, went off the strip and flipped. The AHRA Spring Nationals ran here June 25-27, 1971, and the $50,000 purse drew over 300 racers. New grandstands went up, most of the pits were paved and 2,200 feet of new asphalt went down on the track. Don Garlits won top fuel, Gene Snow funny car and Bob Lambeck pro stock. In 1972 the strip lost the Spring Nationals to the new Century 21 track ten miles east of Denver, which had started out with NHRA and switched to AHRA in its second season, and DIR switched to NHRA. It hosted an NHRA points race on May 6, 1972. At an NHRA divisional race on May 3-4, 1975, Bruce Hagestad beat Jack Harris in top fuel at 6.679 and 215.83 mph, Art Ward won funny car and Tom Kaiser had top speed at 217.98 mph. The first divisional meet in NHRA’s Division 5 was held here April 24-25, 1976, with John Wiebe winning top fuel, Art Ward and Roger Guzman funny car, and Warren Johnson pro stock. Nothing has been found after 1976. One old-timer remembered sneaking over the fence, a friend’s cousin racing a ‘66 Chevelle called Sunday’s Child, and a front-engine dragster whose chute didn’t open, sending it through the farmer’s yard past the end of the track, maybe taking out some chickens.