DEER PARK — A little over 70 years ago with the opening of the Deer Park Dragstrip came the official start of the sport of drag racing in the Inland Northwest.
And while that track is long gone its glory days are remembered each September when racers and fans gather at the Deer Park Auto Show and Drag Strip Reunion, now in a 20th milestone year.
The event takes place Saturday, Sept. 13 at Parkway Automotive Center & RV just off U.S. 395 in Deer Park from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event generally draws vintage Deer Park-era race cars and the people who both built and drove them.
Money raised through donations will be presented to Hospice of Spokane which has been the recipient of an estimated $50,000 over the previous 19 years.
According to local drag racing historian and author, Gary Hordemann, the strip was first used for racing by the Spokane Roadster Racing Association (SRRA). At its meeting of March 2, 1950 the Deer Park City Council had agreed to let the SRRA use it on two dates, April 2 and April 9, 1950.
This first use was not for drag racing, but rather for roadster racing. The circle track sport was popular at the time, but was soon replaced by stock car racing.
“The first use of the airport for drag racing took place in 1953 when a group called the Lilac City Timing Association staged the first organized drag races on March 15, 1953,”Hordemann wrote in an email.”
The Inland Empire Timing Association took over the strip and held biweekly races every year from March through October every year from 1953 through 1961. The strip was later operated by the Spokane Timing Association (STA) under the direction of Orville Moe who ran it through 1969.
In 1970 the Deer Park Raceway, Inc. came into the picture. They ran it through 1974 when the opening of Moe’s Spokane Raceway Park invoked a clause that canceled their five-year contract with Deer Park.
The state of Washington was once home to nearly two-dozen drag strips, many housed on former military airfields, Deer Park’s included. Just a handful remain. Portions of the Deer Park track are still sometimes used for autocross racing.
Some of the pioneers and biggest names in drag racing like Jerry Ruth, Ed McCulloch, Gordie Bonin and many more got their starts on home-grown tracks like Deer Park.
More information on Washington dragstrips both past and present can be found at dragstriplist.com/washington.