Made a visit to Thorn Hill on Saturday 10/24/09, and took some video & photos to use in a YouTube video as a Thorn Hill Dragway Track Tour. The video contains no on track action, but plenty of shots of the facility.

Thanks; I think about that weekend every time I was a fueler run.

Jim the track you are thinking of would be Southeastern Int'l. Dragway which was located in Dallas, Georgia.  Funny Cars were a popular attraction there back in the day.  It operated from 1955 thru 2005 and is still there awaiting development, or so I am told.  It's closure was hard felt as they always had a good turnout of both racers and spectators even for weekly bracket races and test and tune nights.  It was never a high dollar track, never changed from the time I first started going there in the late 70s after moving from SoCal up until the time it closed.  It is located 2 miles West of Hwy.92 on East Paulding Drive, just past a 4 way stop on the right.  If memory serve correct there is a recreational complex right across the street, plus the area is surronded by sub-divisions.

I am with the St. Louis Auto Racing Association and we are in the beginnings of incorporating the Midwest Motorsports Museum and Hall of Fame. This is the sort of information and history that is getting away from us too often.
We would like information about the Alton Dragway to add to our list of long gone race tracks in the midwest. Also the White Hall Raceway. If anyone wants to contact me with information about these tracks please feel free to email me at wandak1776@att.net.  Thanks. Wanda Knepper, Membership Secretary - St. Louis Auto Racing Fan Club.

I lived in Marietta the summer of 1969 before I started college.  During that summer I went to a dragstrip near Marietta and saw the Coca Cola Cavalcade of Funny Cars.  I remember the staging lanes were at the bottom of a hill and you had to drive up the hill to the burn out area.  Anyone know the name of that strip and where it was exactly?  Thanks

the new tower put up between '69 & '70  to accomadate the new timing clocks. But your time was still hand written .

Hey Mike, Alton Dragway is what got me started in racing period. I first went there in '65 with  my cousin. We were spectators then but it wasn't but  a few years and I made my first pass in a a'56 Anglia . After that is was all over. I raced a '60 dodge D100 there for years . Had to hide my trophies  at my uncles house because my Dad did not approve of dragracing at all. Of couse he eventually found out.
  I would say that the most important super stock racer to ever race Alton would have to of been Bill Jenkins. Man your dad booked such great shows.... "The Coca-Cola Calvalcade of Stars", "Wheelie Wars", and all the super stock and funny car match races. What a grat time time to grow up . Alton closed the same year our Uncle asked me to help out in S.E Asia. I live in Texas now but if that reunion ever takes place I will most assuredly be there. Next to the nuns at Immaculate Conception primary school in West Alton , Alton dragway taught me how to act and live right. Hope to see ya soon.

Does anyone have any pictures from Shuffletown in Charlotte, Blaney in Elgin SC, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Mooresville and the surrounding areas from the mid to late 60's. Specifically looking for pictures of my dad's cars. He ran Chevrolets under the name Asphalt Gambler. He ran a '66 red and white Biscayne, '67,'68 and '69 Camaros red and silver and red and white. Our pictures were ruined.

I have a copy of the AJC dating March 3rd 1969. The crash happen the day before. I have been doing some research on the Yellow River Drag Strip. I'm collecting pictures of the cars that raced there and of the accident. I was only 8 years old then, but still remember when it happened. My cousin was there and my older brother was going to go but couldn't make it that day. We lived near Northlake Mall in those days.
In 84 I moved to Cherokee Co. and raced some at Dixie Speedway in the mid 80's. Frank Oglesby, the driver of the cougar in the other lane had a machine shop in Woodstock, I had him do some machine work for me back then, small world. Last I heard, He was driving those jet cars for Roger Gustin.
 That accident changed all forms of racing, it required all the tracks to have enough insurance to cover a disaster like that. The insurance companies then required guard rails and heavy fencing to protect the spectators. After March 2nd 1969 alot of the smaller tracks closed down because the new requirements.

Seems like there are conflicting dates on the net, the article in the AJC say's it happened in '69, I always thought it was earlier.  Our family was friends with Buster Couch, the NHRA starter, we always had passes to the local drag strips.  I think back then we could get in by the car load.
That race my brother and I were allowed to take friends so it was my dad, youngest brother, middle brother and his friend and me, I was 14 or 15 and had 2 friends with me.
  We got out of the station wagon and some of us went to the pits and anywhere we wanted just about.  My dad and youngest brother sat in the bleachers on the west side of the track.  I remember we could just walk across the track if we wanted to, we just had to make sure the sherriff and the st patrol were not around.  One of my friends and I were sliding on this sharp 55 chevy it was like glass but just before the wreck we decided to go to the start line.  After the start of the race I remember people just started running up the track like water pouring in a funnel is the only way I've been able to explain it.  My friend and I followed.  It's hard to explain the rest except just a nightmare.  I just remember walking around in shock for what seemed like long time.  My dad  finally found us and told us all to go to the car.  I know that he must have been terrified until each one of us were accounted for.  My brother's friend was crying and we were
just kind of numb.  I remember, and this is what has stayed with me most, it was seeing the 55 chevy that my friend and I were sitting on just before the race, the front end was destroyed right where we were sitting.  The horror of that day seemed to fade but I think God has kept me from forgetting that He saved my friend and I that day.  Needless to say it was a long trip back to home to Decatur, it was only 30 miles but it could have been 3000.  Nobody that I can remember spoke a word.  My dad and I had always talked about building a car to race and one of his friends who had been a regular at Y.R. was going to help us.  That never happened and my father would get very teary eyed or just cry anytime we talked about that day.  I lost interest in racing after that and only went to a few races over the years.  What lead me to this sight was a church brother who lived in the N. Ga Mtn's never heard about it and asked me to get him some info.  There was a lot of strips around that were unsafe and the good that came from all of it was they were made safer after the wreck.  I heard a lot of conflicting stories about how it happened, but it was just a sad day for a lot of people.