Tye Air Base (Abilene)

Dyess Air Force Base and the Abilene Jaycees co-sponsored drag races twice a month on a runway at the old Tye Air Base. It was on FM 707 west of Dyess, about seven miles southwest of Abilene, reached from Highway 80 west of South 14th Street. Racing started in early 1960, by March 27 at the latest, or possibly earlier. By August it was monthly, on the third Sunday, under NHRA sanction and Jaycee sponsorship, with trophies and savings bonds for class winners in stock, modified stock and gas classes. Eddie Hill was the featured racer on November 20, 1960, in his record-holding dragster. The Key City Timing Association ran the races then, and the Key City Saints, who had raced at Abilene Municipal Airport, ran here too. Ads in 1961 and 1962 called it the Jaycee Drag Strip, while Hot Rod called it the Abilene Dragstrip. It may have run before 1960, since the 1959 NHRA Drag Strip Guide listed it as inactive in Division 4.