This weekend marks an awesome occasion in the history of drag racing in the state of Virginia. The NHRA Mello Yello tour returns to a revamped and reworked Virginia Motorsports Park facility after about a decade of absence. With the closure of drag racing activities at Englishtown, VIR called the NHRA and received the date that would have otherwise been the 50th running of the famed Summernationals in New Jersey. Tommy Franklin and his family who own the place have been pouring time, money, and resources into it to get it back to national event nick and the reports of their progress are kind of awe-inspiring. They have resurfaced the whole track, they have spruced up the tower, the facilities, and the timing system. In short, they tuned the place up to get it ready for the biggest event it has seen in a decade.
Drag racing has always had a presence in the state of Virginia and this video from Suffolk Raceway in the early 1970s is total proof. We’re not sure if this was an AHRA meet or perhaps it was Coca-Cola Cavalcade of Funny Car Stars event but either way, this freaking race was packed with every star of the day. Ivo, Kalitta, Sox, Jungle Jim, Pete Robinson, Paula Murphy, and on and on and on. The footage is clear, it is in color, and it shows the stark nature of most strips back then. Clearly this place was a runway for at least some of its life but on the weekend this video was made, it was the center of the drag racing universe, much the same as Virginia Motorsports Park will be this weekend.
GREAT track! Used to race there back in the mid 70’s/