York US 30 Drag-O-Way (Thomasville)

Three thousand people watched 450 racers at the airport on May 12, 1957, in a meet run by the White Rose Timing Association. A competition coupe from Custom Auto Parts of Marietta set top speed at 113 MPH, and Matthew Herbert of Fords, New Jersey, won top eliminator in his B roadster. Races followed on the second Sunday of each month through October, starting June 9, with the east coast championships on July 6-7. On July 14 more than 1,000 fans saw 80 cars, and the Custom Auto Parts car took top eliminator and top speed at 116.88 MPH. The August 11 meet drew more than 1,500 people and over 200 vehicles under Eastern Hot Rod Association and American Motorcycle Association sanction, and Joe Jacono was among the 36 trophy winners. On September 15, 1,000 fans watched 250 cars and 40 motorcycles, and Custom Auto Parts won again with the day’s best speed of 132 MPH. Drag News reported in October that Eastern Hot Rod Association president Perry Burton saw big improvements in how the York drags were run. A truck loaded with fire extinguishers had replaced the fire engine because it could reach a fire faster, and a station wagon set up as an ambulance and a Red Cross vehicle were on hand. Ed Fisher of Parkesburg ended the Custom Auto Parts streak on October 13, winning top eliminator on his motorcycle over 200 cars and cycles, while Don Seabrook had the best average at 125 MPH. On October 27, 1957, the track held its first half-mile drags, for stock cars only, won by the Aristone-Berslosky-Callaway-Dutton entry from Maple Grove, New Jersey, at 115.3 MPH.

The South Penn Hot Rod Council, made up of five Hanover car clubs, began racing on a runway at York Airport, six miles west of York at Thomasville, on May 3, 1959. It was then the only NHRA-sanctioned strip in Pennsylvania or Maryland, and Richard “Corky” Allison managed it. At the state championships on August 30, 1959, 2,500 people watched 234 entries, and Fred Zepp of Marietta won top eliminator at 11 seconds and 128.20 MPH. A special meet on October 18, 1959, raised money for the Hanover Kiwanis Club’s underprivileged children’s fund. Races ran every other Sunday in 1959 and 1960 and every Saturday night in 1961, when the track also hosted an NHRA regional meet. An AHRA Grand American points race with a $100,000 purse came on August 13-15, 1971.

For the Funny Car National Races on May 21, 1972, co-owners William Holz and John Reynolds hired seventeen girls as topless hostesses in the pits. NHRA threatened to pull the track’s insurance, so the girls wore see-through blouses instead. The owners then looked into a New Jersey insurer that didn’t care what the hostesses wore, or didn’t, for a meet on July 9, 1972, but how that turned out isn’t known.

The airport belonged to a private corporation that used drag race income to help pay its expenses. In 1979 the FAA wanted to install more sophisticated landing instruments but hesitated because of the racing. Airport manager Eugene Tate defended the races, saying they had never interfered with airport operations and that businesses using the airport said the races had never held them up or made it unsafe. By then races ran on about twenty Saturday afternoons a year, drawing about 1,000 spectators.