Images credit: Memories of Southland Dragways/Facebook

Another Flashback Friday has arrived, and that means it’s time to jump on the old “Silversides” tour bus and visit another of the ghosts of drag racings’ past. this week, our trip takes us to the bayou of Houma, Louisiana, which was once the site of Southland Dragways.

Like many of the drag racing facilities of the 1950’s and 60’s that we’ve highlighted on our Flashback Friday, Southland was a rather short-lived operation that simply didn’t survive as the sport progressed out of the it’s golden age in the late 1970’s and into the early 80’s. Southland, located on West Park Avenue in Houma opened its gates on July 1, 1969, and after 10 great years, shuttered it’s gates forever.

Interstate pipeline mogul Luke Grezzafi funded the contraction of the facility, which was modeled after the Orange Count International Raceway out in California with covered grandstands, an octagon-shaped control tower, and scoreboards at the finish line to display ET and MPH. The land which the track was built upon was a former golf driving range, and in fact, what was previously the golf pro shop became the tracks’ office.

Southland operated on the second and fourth Sunday of each month, with booked-in Top Fuel and Funny Car shows, local class racing, Division 4 WCS points meets, and at one time, even a Soap Box Derby.

The likes of Candies & Hughes, Gene Snow, Don Prudhomme, Mike Burkhart, Tom McEwen, Raymond Beadle, and many others helped cement the Southland Raceways in drag racing history and at the time, as a crown jewel facility in Division 4.

Glenn Menard operated the track when it first opened in ’69 before returning to college, and it was at that point in time when legendary drag racing announcer Dave McClelland was lured from his job at a television studio in nearby Shreveport to takr the reigns of the facility. Just a year later, however, McClelland moved on to the Dallas International Raceway supert rack and Menard returned.

During the ensuing years, Southland went through a revolving door of track operators, including Ralph Baker – who originally helped create the facility – and Norman “Moose” Pearah. In the late 1977, a group of local racers headed by class racing legend Joe Teuton attempted to revive the track, even installing lights to conduct races into the evening. But after one season chocked full of rainouts, Teuton and company called it quits and Southland was closed.

Unlike many of the hundreds of other strips that were closed in the name of progress, Southland essentially laid dormant for more than a decade; left just as it was on the final day of racing.