Images credit: SixFlagsDragway.com per their respective owners.

For anyone without historic knowledge of the facility, hearing the words Six Flags Dragway most likely evokes visions of a drag racing-themed thrill ride at the popular amusement park destination by the same name, but that assumption would be false.

In a documented letter dated August 8, 1961, the Federal Aviation Agency granted the Victoria Timing Association permission to utilize Aloe Field in Victoria to conduct  “testing and tuning” of their vehicles; also known as drag racing. Aloe Field was an Air Force establishment used for advanced flying school programs throughout World War II and deactivated in October of 1945, with plans to reassign it as an Army Air Field that never materialized.

In 1960, Aloe was closed and in 1961 was turned back over to Victoria County. In 1962, the General Services Administration declared the field a surplus and placed it up for sale. The land was eventually broke up into parcels, with a portion of it purchased by a local businessman, who leased it on a year-by-year basis to the “Rod Benders” hot rod club, which operated the drag races held at Aloe under the Six Flags Raceway name. Under a stipulation of the agreement, the “Rod Benders” could not make any permanent improvements to the strip.

In 1968, G.A. Kupfernegal purchased the portion of the property that had been used for drag racing and renamed it Six Flags Raceway Park. In 1973, he sold the property and equipment to another owner, who continued to conduct drag races at the airfield until the close of the 1975 season, when it was sold to a developer.

Although the Six Flags Raceway and the Six Flags theme park – founded in Arlington in 1960 – both opened around the same period, no evidence exists to link the two together other than the name.