White Hall Drag Strip

The Conquistadores car club of Greene County had sponsored drag races on the horse track at the Greene County Fairgrounds for a couple of years, but that track was too short, so they looked for another option. In 1962 they cleared and leveled a hilltop field on the Hawk farm just northwest of White Hall, on the east side of Route 106 (Winchester Road), and hauled in truckloads of clay for a hard-packed surface. Sunday afternoon and Tuesday night races drew well. Ads promised a Super Stock invitational on September 9, 1962, possibly one of the first races there. Night racing started on Tuesday, May 28, 1963. One featured racer was Stan Lomolino of Virden, whose flathead dragster had topped 140 mph at other strips.

According to one source, the eighth-mile track moved in 1964 to the north edge of White Hall beside Illinois Route 267, northeast of the first site. On July 27, 1965, it held a match race between two Virden racers, Lomolino and Jody Hendricks. Paul Fansler managed the strip. On Tuesday, May 10, 1966, Dickie Harrell, “Mr. Chevrolet,” made three exhibition runs on the clay in his 1966 Chevy II funny car. Tuesday night races regularly drew 70 to 80 racers.

In early 1968 the club decided to move again and spent most of the year on heavy site work for an asphalt track southeast of town. White Hall Drag-O-Way was ready in late 1968. Competition from nearby strips and rising costs, insurance above all, forced it to close in 1975. A few others tried to revive it without success, and by 1980 it sat vacant for good.