NHRA national drag strips are closing. Atlanta area drag strip closed 2 or 3 years ago. Houston area drag strip closed last year. Phoenix is going to close this year. This is the last year for Denver area(Bandimere) drag strip.  This is scary. 

Property value worth more than running a race track.  Sooner than we think they will all be gone. Sad. Race fans and racing is dying a slow death. Today's youth can care less about cars and racing.

Englishtown, NJ drag strip ended up being a giant parking lot for the cars that got flooded during Super Storm Sandy.

When Englishtown was closing, there were comments on how expensive it was to have the NHRA national event there. 

Last statement is true about being expensive to host a NHRA event. Richmond Dragway dropped thier NHRA event due to not being able to make any money.  As for E-Town once Vinnie Napp passed away. His kids took over and they didn't want anything to do with running the track. They thought they stuck it rich with a deal with Co-Parts but that was shot down by the township. That was the rumor going around. Not sure how true that was. 

What looks like an "8" in the upper right of the image (I guess it's for drifting class) below is where the dragstrip was.

Lots of scrap/parts cars parked in what was the shut down area, the spectator parking area, and what used to be the pit side, and all the way down to the airport (which is out of frame, bottom right.)

Nothing but memories now when it comes to ETown.

My entire auto racing competitive history comes down to me running 13.32 at 102 mph in my Buick against a low 14 second Mustang, that a friend of mine happend to be video taping, so you hear my son who was about 6 years old at the time, yelling go daddy!!!, YEAH....

Not much of a racing career, but at least I have the video.

There's a fence across the drag strip. That had to bring a tear to the eye of who ever instald  that fence. 
They hold big drifting events on that figure 8 looking track. Big grandstands, bathrooms and concessions. 

Just a personal opinion about Englishtown. When the last person was killed there they cut the track down to 1/8th a mile. I think that was a big part of the weekly events dying. 

They still have Drifting, Motorcross, swap meets, and Go Carts. Insurance Auto Auctions is the actual company that leases the track. Not Copart even though Copart seems to buy up every other racetrack if possible. I'm curious about what Club Loose is all about listed on their Website.

If IAA pulled out tomorrow, the track would never be able to hold a Major NHRA event there. They have hundreds of new homes being built in the area. Right by the WaWa on 520 (Texas Rd.) &527 has a large Senior Citizens development being built. On top of all the traffic issues there every day. All the new people in the area would be up in arms over the noise. 

The website is updated for 2023 - https://etownracewaypark.com/

Don - Didn't you have a car that you ran there on street nights back in the day?  Probably right around the  same time I had the Buick there.  (Early 2000's maybe?)

I know that Motorhead Mike who visits the board sometimes as "A Stan Fan" had a really quick late 70's Malibu that he ran on skinny little tires, that left folks shaking their heads when it came time to comparing time slips!  Still not sure how he did it.....

I use to run my Solara and then switch to the Pickup Truck, on Friday nights Around 2009 & 2010. I Have two trophies from a Saturday event. Entered a few Gambler races and once the Imports vs The World on a Sunday. 

Joe, you were there one Friday night and introduced me to "A Stan Fan". He was there with his car racing. 

18th mile, prostocks went to efi, lost the hood scoops, pay to watch, I dont see any races on free tv,  cost of entry, and the price to keep a dragstrip running sucha as a million dollar plus insurance policy, its easier to sell, make your money and walk away. Same as Nascrap. Its all about money. Drag racers were a special breed. And we are steadily fading away with no new interest.

I grew up with the Napoliello (Napp) sons. They all work hard and they did a good job with a dying horse. It's super expensive holding big events like a National, especially in the spring with the unpredictable weather. Their big money makers were the thrill shows and drift and foriegn compact events.   They were offerred a lot more money from Copart than what they could make in racing. They did what they had to do.

Went to Island Drag way last year for nostalgia funny cars place was packed.  A great place for hot rodders lots of older cars and dragsters.  Don't know much about what's going on at Atco Drag Strip.  Was in the news awhile ago thought it was closing. Island does have Friday night spectator drags bring your street legal car and have fun.

I live 20 minutes from Cecil Co Dragway in Maryland. Been working on my Beetle so I can make some passes. Then to Maplegrove for an all VW event. 

Hey John, what's the Beetle run in the 1/4, or 1/8th? 

This is a street car with a stock ratio trans. So, I can run 1/8 or 1/4. I built a turbo system for and just trying to get it all tuned.  I have gone 11.41 1/4 and 7.09 1/8 in another natu aspirated vw. I have no idea what this one will run. 

Drifting events that I've seen run two cars at a time, and they are side by side, often inches apart, so there "shouldn't" be any cross traffic at the intersection.  I did say "shouldn't be..."

I don't know what you have to do to get a Beetle in the mid 11's, but I do know that before they started making factory cars with over 500HP the last 10 years or so, unless you did a ton of work to a full size V8 powered car, the 11's were usually not happening...  I spent quite a few nights at Atco watching full sized cars that were trailered in... and watched most run high 13's or worse. 

I did have a friend that had a V8 Vega that ran 10.77 at 127 mph, and I wouldn't have felt safe taking a ride to the nearest Wawa in it....  Too much duct tape and zipties for me.

Modern horse power is amazing. 
the 11 sec car was a fiberglass dune buggy. Purpose built for drag racing. I did have a Bug that went 14.79. I'll post pics someday. VW's are just lite. The 80" wheel base of the buggy was fun. In the 80's there weren't really any 8 sec aircooled VW's. Now there's a bunch.