Historic Drag Racing From Tracks Around Illinois and Missouri – Four Wide Action and More!


Historic Drag Racing From Tracks Around Illinois and Missouri – Four Wide Action and More!

This weekend I’ll be calling the action at the NHRA event in Norwalk, Ohio. I am looking forward to this race as it will have lots of fun stuff going for it like pro mods, championship implications, and 90-degree temperatures. Ok, I am not looking forward to the 90-degree temps but that is another story for another day. What does any of that have to do with this video? The awesome film below was shot at places like the old St Louis drag strip, Alton, Illinois, Wentzville, Missouri, etc. All tracks that have contributed to the growth and legendary hot rodding prowess of the midwestern USA.

A couple of favorite highlights in here are the runs filmed at the spartan Alton Dragway. With the grass between the lanes and row of light poles off to the right, the only thing this place was missing was a tank of sharks to jump at the end of the course. You will see funny cars at that track and other machines that look like they are actually running down the return road as they are that close to the crowd. The four wide race that is shown rules pretty hard. Two Mustangs and two Camaros are staggered across the track and they all leave at the same time. Well, not really. The Mustang on the far left hole shots the pants off the rest of the racers but the four machines hurtling down course are awesome.

There is no natural track sound but there is some good rock and roll music to go with these clips into the past of drag racing in the heartland. It is fun stuff to watch and it will be in my mind as I’m calling the action from the big tower at Gateway.

Press play below to see some great historic drag racing in action –


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4 thoughts on “Historic Drag Racing From Tracks Around Illinois and Missouri – Four Wide Action and More!

  1. Tim

    Alton Drag way, ahhhh brings back fond memories of my youth. the track was just a couple miles from my house, The first unofficial 200 mph pass was laid down here. and attracted all the big names in the day.
    Today the strip still exists as the main road in the middle of a run down trailer park, I think they should have named the old strip and all of the little roads that now connect to it after some of the big names of the day.

    1. Marsha Nelson (Storey)

      I agree to that I guess dad was no thinking of the when he name the streets. I sure do miss the drag strip whole lot of fun and memories growing up there.

  2. Dennis ODonnell

    Enjoyed the video. At 1:49 seconds in I it was fun to see my dragster in action at Alton Drag Way, I have photos of it but no video till now. It was a B Econo rail. when NHRA started the class it truly was econo, all motor parts had to be factory and it kept the cost down. But like every thing in racing people wanted to go faster and the rules changed and the cost went up. I sold the car and moved on to street rods.It was fun while it lasted.I ran the car at Alton, St. Louis International Race way,MAR, and Pacific. Thanks to who ever put the video together it was great to see my car and others I remember seeing run back then. I hope they also see there cars Running.

  3. Bob Worrall

    Like Dennis, at 2:20 I saw my GT-350 & me run down the track, I still have the Photos from that day…On leave from Ft. Leonard Wood Army base and a couple of buddies wanted to see Jungle Jim & Gene Snow Race in there Funny Cars. First time I had ever seen a Video of the car on a run. Thank You for bringing back some Old Times!

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