Santa Ana Drags was the first drag strip in the United States. The strip was founded by C.J. "Pappy" Hart, Creighton Hunter and Frank Stillwell at the Orange County Airport auxiliary runway in southern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and was operational from June 19, 1950 until June 21, 1959

Making history

Many pioneers in drag racing began at Santa Ana. Art Chrisman, Don Yates, Calvin Rice, Joaquin Arnett, George "Ollie" Morris and others participated regularly. The strip was created with $1000 startup money, and charged both spectators and participants 50 cents, of which 10% went directly to the owner of the airport. The strip installed timing clocks, so racers could actually get accurate times for each run. There was also a pit area,

restrooms A public toilet, restroom, public bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils ...

, a

concession stand A concession stand (American English, Canadian English), snack kiosk or snack bar (British English, Irish English) is a place where patrons can purchase snacks or food at a cinema, amusement park, zoo, aquarium, circus, fair, stadium, beach, swim ...

and primitive

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...

s for spectators and plenty of parking. It was closed due to pressure from C.J Hart, whose wife had hired a private investigator to determine if Frank Stillwell was stealing money from the gate receipts in 1957.

''Main Street Malt Shop and Santa Ana Drag Strip Reunion''

Reunions are held twice a year, in April and October in Santiago Creek Park in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...

, including the April 14, 2012 event. They are now organized by Leslie Long, after being organized by Bill and Marie Jenks previously.

References

Drag racing venues History of Orange County, California Sports venues in Orange County, California Orange County, California culture John Wayne Airport Sports venues completed in 1950 1950 establishments in California 1959 disestablishments in California {{Auto-stub

Making history

''Main Street Malt Shop and Santa Ana Drag Strip Reunion''

See also

References