Former Huntsville Dragway Gets New Lease on Life - Blasting Back as Rocket City Dragway on April 7!
While we did write about several track closures in 2023, it was refreshing to hear and see about a few tracks coming back to life as well.
We recently reported about a couple of new eighth-mile tracks being constructed in Florida, and it’ll be just a few weeks before a popular track in Alabama re-opens with a new name, Rocket City Dragway.
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The former Huntsville Dragway, which originally opened in 1961 under the name Manassas Drag Strip, has a rich and storied history.
The track went through two more names, Satellite Drag Strip and Madison County Dragway, before Huntsville Dragway became the name that stuck for more than 40 years.
The track has hosted a little bit of everything, from the first Million Dollar Bracket Race in 1996, to the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) Bama Nitrous Nationals in 1993, with now International Drag Racing Hall of Famer Scotty Cannon taking the Pro Mod victory.
Huntsville also hosted the first $101,000-to-win Top Fuel purse just over a decade later in 2005, and the very first Radial Fest event in 2014.
Recently the track had fallen on tough times, but new director David Sharp and a team of people are working hard to get the track ready for its first event under the new name, Rocket City Dragway.
The facility boasts an eighth-mile concrete racing surface, with another 2,200 feet of asphalt shutdown space. It will be extended 400 feet more, for a total half-mile overall stopping distance.
This upgrade, along with concrete barriers and concrete grandstands, are just some of the upgrades that Sharp hopes will get the attention to host an eighth-mile national event. In December at the PRI show, the track signed a multi-year agreement with the IHRA.
The public will get their first view of the facility on Sunday, April 7th at a ‘Sunday Funday’ test and tune to give racers and fans a chance to see the new additions and upgrades first hand.
“We want to get back to our core, to our roots and have a strong bracket racing program,” Sharp said. “Where some fans have photos of Don Garlits on their walls, my young son Dawson has bracket legend Scotty Richardson on his wall. Bracket racing is our foundation, but we also want to have great heads-up racing consisting of pro mods, index, street cars and the newly-announced IHRA Real Steel class.”
In addition to the concentration of bracket racers around the area that would participate in the IHRA Summit SuperSeries points races, Sharp and team have plans to incorporate more events at Rocket City Dragway, including bringing back the Radial Fest in April, a Top Fuel showdown in May, the ‘Night of Thunder and Fire’ in July with jet cars and Pro Mods on hand, and hope to have more heads-up type racing in the works as well.
Despite a lot of improvements and some solid racing events on the books, Sharp still has a bucket list of improvement plans for the track’s 100-acre chunk of land.
Those improvements include added parking for both racers and spectators, a new stage and camp area, and a tractor pull area, which will add to the facility’s multi-use aim, named the Rocket City Dragway and Event Center. For more details about the track and its plans, check out the ‘Rocket City Dragway’ Facebook page.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of John Fore III, Jeremy ‘Taco’ Patterson, IHRA and Rocket City Dragway.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com