Drag strips as well as entry-level stock, modifieds and sprint car tracks have become endangered species.
CARS-magazine sponsored record-holding Baldwin-Motion 427 Camaro and Pacers Auto blown-fuel roadster at Island Dragway, Great Meadows, NJ in mid-1960s. Photos: Martyn L. Schorr.
Fifty years after the heyday of drag racing, local tracks to national circuits have been feeling pressures of changing times, an aging fan base, and competition for entertainment dollars. “People have so many other things that they can do other than going out to the weekly short tracks,” says Ernie Saxton, 72, a New Jersey racing announcer of over 45 years. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we, the people like myself who are involved in the industry, have done a good job in selling the good points of weekly short track racing.”
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