Over the last year in our weekly Flashback Friday feature, we’ve taken a trip back in time to look at a vast number of old abandoned drag strips around the state of Georgia, which has a list of former racing facilities that could rival any of the early drag racing hotbed states. This week, we head to the Atlanta metro area.
The former Yellow River Dragstrip, located between the Atlanta-area cities of Covington and Conyers, was, like the vast majority of southern strips at the time, a small line of pavement running through a hollow and offering virtually zero safety measures or fan protection. Only small dirt banks with chain-link fences lined the edges of the strip, and fans could practically reach out and touch the cars as they blasted by.
Area race fans would materialize out of the woods and pay a few bucks a head to
watch some of the great match racers of the time, such as “Dyno Don” Nicholson, Malcolm Durham, Don Carlton, Phil Bonner, Ronnie Sox, and a host of others. Fans would line the very edges of the strip, some reveling in the racing while others waved wads of cash as they made side bets.
Despite earning recognition for some great match racing among the sports elite during its time, Yellow River will forever be best known as the site of
one of the darkest moments in racing history.
On March 2, 1969, Georgia drag racing legend Huston Platt was racing his “Dixie Twister” Funny Car alongside Frank Oglesby on the narrow, sandy Yellow River track when a fan was said to have reached out on the track to retrieve a beer can as Platt deployed his parachute. The man was swept up in the chute, killing him instantly. However, the weight against the car sent Platt’s machine out of control and into the crowd, where 11 people were killed and 40 were injured in what remains the worst racing disaster in the United States.
Yellow River, one of Georgia’s most popular race tracks, closed its gates after that fateful day and never held another race. The strip eventually became the road through a mobile home community, but the strip itself and the treacherous uphill, curving shutdown area is still evident. Fortunately, following that tragic event at Yellow River, uninsured, unsanctioned tracks became a thing of the past and the sport that often turned a blind eye to safety began a push toward a higher standard of safety for racers and fans alike.