Triangle Dragway (Fort Benton)

Joe Knighton, a sergeant at Malmstrom Air Force Base, got permission from Fort Benton’s City-County Airport Board to run periodic drag races on the landing strip northeast of town. On July 24, 1966, 3,000 people watched almost 300 cars at an NHRA-sanctioned race put on by the Triangle Timing Association, with $2,815 in prize money. The Eagle Automotive AA/F dragster from Spokane took top eliminator and $800 with a 217 MPH run, and the Eagle Electric AA fueler, also from Spokane, was runner-up.

The last of six races that season ran on October 9, with a $1,500 purse that drew about 125 entries. Four AA fuelers showed up: Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s “Yellow Fang” with George “Bushmaster” Schreiber driving, the “Purple Eagle” and “Golden Eagle” from Spokane, and the Blee Brothers car from Billings. Frank Rupert won the $500 fuel prize in the “Purple Eagle.” Most races drew about 1,500 people, but 2,500 came to the finale. No newspaper record of racing after 1966 has turned up, though the strip was on a list of 325 U.S. drag strips published in 1968 by the Swedish magazine Start & Strip.