Tradewind Airport (Amarillo)

The Texas Panhandle Timing Association held a quarter-mile race here on October 10, 1954, billed as the Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Championship Drag Races and sanctioned by the NHRA and the American Motorcycle Association. Several thousand people paid $1 to watch 76 cars and 50 motorcycles, and a Model B Ford roadster ran the top speed of 112 MPH. The Chaparral Roadster Club of Dallas supplied the timing gear. The crowd was keen, and there was hope for a permanent strip in Amarillo. Two events were held in 1954 and three in 1955, including a two-day Southwest and Rocky Mountain Championship on September 24-25, 1955, where Jack Moss set the top speed record of 138 MPH in his “Ramblin’ Ram” dragster. The 1956 championship on August 19 drew a strong field of cars on their way to the NHRA nationals in Kansas City. On July 20-21, 1957, the third annual NHRA Southwestern Regional Championships were held here. Rain prevented the final between Dannie Rightsell of Pampa and Joe Williams of Amarillo, and Lee Christian of Lubbock ran the meet’s best speed of 125.34 MPH before about 2,000 spectators.

The location is confusing. 1957 newspapers said the regional was at Tradewind Airport, three miles southeast of Amarillo, but also said it would be four miles south of Pampa at the old auxiliary field, which was actually six miles south of Pampa. That field, on the west side of Highway 70 (the Clarendon Highway), was the former Pampa Auxiliary Army Air Field No. 2, or Reeves Field, with three asphalt runways 4,200 feet long and 200 feet wide. It is farmland now but still shows in aerial photos.