Thunderbird Dragway (Muskegon)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as Thunderbird Raceway; Birchwood Speedway
- A fatal crash in 2008 and questions about the bumpy track ended drag racing
- Raced
- 1960s-2008
- State
- Michigan
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- Last race
- May 28, 2008
- Location
- Next to the Thunderbird Raceway oval in Muskegon
- People
- Wink Bliech, built the oval (1958)
- Roger and Joanne Joneson, owners (1960-)
- Elevation
- 671 ft (205 m)
- Coordinates
- 43.34504, -86.24826
Shoe salesman Wink Bliech built a 3/8-mile clay oval in Muskegon in 1958 and called it Birchwood Speedway. Roger and Joanne Joneson bought it in 1960 and by 1969 had renamed it Thunderbird Raceway. They probably added the drag strip next to it sometime in the 1960s, and it ran on and off over the years. Its one fatality ended drag racing there. On May 28, 2008, Larry Eaton, 57, lost control of his altered when his engine failed, and he died of his injuries six weeks after the car flipped. The track’s bumpy surface came under scrutiny after the crash, operations were suspended, and it appears closed for good.
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