Images credit: nerkahia.com

Another work week has come to a close, meaning it’s time to take yet another look at one of the “ghost tracks” representing drag racing’s glorious, history-rich past and our trip this week takes us to the city of Newark, Oh., just east of Columbus and the present-day home of Larry Morgan Racing, where the Hyde Park Drag Strip once resided.

Hyde Park opened during the founding stages of the sport on July 21, 1957 and operated through what many would consider to be the golden age of drag racing, closing its gates forever in 1968. Spectators would line up in the spectator line, just off Dorsey Mill Road, and pay their dollar admission before staking out a spot on the hillside to park their cars to watch the slingshot dragsters, gassers, and stockers wage war on the Hyde Park quarter mile.

In 1962, after the speeds racers were attaining had more than doubled from its 1957 opening, the Hyde Park strip was reconstructed with a small hill at the end of the track, mean to help the cars stop on the rather short shutdown area. As one can imagine, this only served as a launching ramp, as was the case for Dick Padar and his dragster that ended up in a tree. Following that incident, a new, much longer strip was built with even larger hill built at the top end.

The site of the two former strips remained intact until sometime through the 1990’s and possibly into the early 2000’s, but today, a development of new homes has overrun the center of what was once the dragstrip property, leaving virtually no distinguishable sign of the straightline racing that was once conducted there.