Tulsa North Airport

The Tulsa North Airport was built around 1944 or 1945 with a single paved runway of about 3,000 feet. The Tulsa Timing Association ran its first season there in 1956, ending in bitter cold on November 18. Melvin Heath set that year’s track record of 140.43 mph and won top eliminator at the finale. In his Drag News column of December 14, 1957, Don Elliott noted that cars started on 270 feet of concrete before switching to asphalt, and that the change came right at the shift point for some fast cars, which could wreck transmissions and rear axles. Racing also paused now and then for light planes to land and take off, with little delay.

In 1958 races ran on the second and fourth Sundays, and racing was under way by October 1958 or earlier. On November 2, 1958, Jim Davis of Oklahoma City broke the track record with 149 mph and 9.82 in his Chrysler-powered fuel dragster. In 1959 and 1960 the Tulsa Timing Association raced on the first and third Sundays under NHRA sanction. Through 1960 the top speed was 152.54 mph, by the Williams-Swanda-Creitz dragster from Tulsa. A local man recalled racing starting around 1953-55, and said it ended because dragsters tore up one end of the asphalt runway, so the races moved to Browns or another airport.