Jim Hale

[bill dedman]

Originally Posted by Dwight Southerland

RE: Little Rock Drag Strip

Bill - The shutdown area was completely paved in 1965. Actually, only the last 100 feet or so was gravel. The end of the dragstrip intersected a county road and there was originally concern about race cars running off the end and into passing traffic because the shutdown was a little short. Mostly that was just talk because how much traffic do you have on a Sunday afternoon in the 1960s on a county road? I saw somebody run 191 mph in a fuel dragster there and stop before the end, so it wasn't too short. If they had been able to cut down the trees on the other side of the county road, that would have made it a lot safer because there was an open field beyond the tree line. The farmer may have lost a cow or two, but what the hey - fresh meat for the concession stand!

That was the first place I saw S.E. Buchanan. He was driving a '50 model Ford with a blown SBC backed by a four-speed that was owned by two guys in LR who owned a foreign car repair shop - Elrod & Roper. That is our buddy Bobby Roper who raced the A/SA Camaro for years in recent times.

I saw lots of SS match races there and lots of fuel cars. Vance Hines, Bobby Langley, Eddie Hill, etc. There were two locals with AA/FA cars, Mike Heim and O.D. Brazil, who regularly put on wild match races. O.D. later had a Top Fuel car that did reasonable well for such a low funded effort

The track was shut down around 1970 because of business developments and encroaching population. Tom Parker leased it and opened in in 1973 or 74 as an 1/8 mile track. It became one of my "home" tracks along with Carlisle. I personally love the 1/8 mile racing. It tests your concentration in a four-speed car though. Lots less wear and tear on the engine and the races happen with such frequency that the spectator excitement is easy to maintain. In the late 1970s and early 1980s there were several Pro Stock match races there, including Reher & Morrison, the Marriott Bros., etc.

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Dwight, thanks for the history lesson on the area's drag strips during the period after I left the state. I wasn't aware that they ever paved that shutdown area at tha Little Rock strip. That was something that should have been done at the outset...

I was involved in that blown Chevy gasser of Roper's to the extent that I owned the HydraMatic in it. I was a big fan of Pitman-Edwards and Stone/Woods/Cook during those years, and had run a normally-aspirated B Gasser, myself, with an Olds/Hydro powertrain and liked the consistency and reliability of those transmissions, so when Bobby put a blower on that Chevy, I took him a "built" Hydro and talked him into ballasting the car down to C/GS, and he liked the car that way. Lowell Elrod (the regular driver) had some health issues, and S.E. was available, so he took over the driving chores, as Bobby's heart doctor had said that his problems with arrhythmia wouldn't be helped by driving an 11-second car. It was a 4-speed, for sure, but an "automatic" 4-speed.


I never was acquainted with Tom Parker when I lived in Arkansas; I guess I must have moved away before he became involved it the local "promotional" scene. He was pretty much involved in that Fairgrounds strip, and told me about their hopes for a new strip on that same parcel of land, to the West (over by the fence.) Too bad that never materialized. I never heard why...