Tucson Dragway

2nd Annual
Tucson Dragway Reunion
March 23, 24 & 25, 2007
Southwestern International Raceway
at the Pima County Fairgrounds

I don't have all the details yet except for the dates so keep checking back for updates.

Or you can check out the Southwestern International Raceway web site at www.sirace.com

Or you can contact them at:
SIR
11300 S. Houghton Rd.
Tucson, AZ 85747
Phone: 520-762-9700
Fax: 520-762-9777

Southwestern International Raceway is located off I-10 at Houghton Rd (Exit 275), south 1.5 miles to Dawn Rd.

When I went into the Air Force, I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson Arizona. Tucson had a drag strip called Tucson Dragway out on Houghton Road southeast of town. My first trip there was in 1973. It seems the track was closed after the AHRA Winternationals in February 1985. As I understand it, the track was being used as an airstrip for the delivery of illegal drugs into the Tucson area.

This page is under construction, please come back soon as I will be adding new pictures contributed by others. I am also working on pages for Bee Line Dragway, US 30 Drag Strip and Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Most of the races I went to at Tucson Dragway were night races. Consquently, I don't have too many pictures of Tucson Dragway. With night photography, it is not that easy to get good pictures, unless you know what you're doing. You guessed it, Steve Reyes I'm not. I do have several pictures from a night race where they had 4 jet cars. Awesome sight to see at night. I'll get those scanned in one of these days and posted them here.

Featured Driver/Car page...

Featuring Danny Levitt

Featured Driver/Car page...

Featuring Doug Wachter

1973 Racing Season

Pure Heaven AA/FA in the pits, May 5, 1973

Mike Sullivan's AA/FA in the pits, May 5, 1973

Gordie Rivera's Pro Stock Vega in the pits, July 15, 1973.

I had Gordie autograph this photo at the US Nationals in Indy a few years back. He said he had a photo hanging in his office taken that same night at about the same angle.

Kevin Rotty's Pro Stock Camaro, July 15, 1973
Here racing the G&D Hemi car...

Out-A-Sight Pro Stock Camaro, July 22, 1973

In 1970, I seen this car run at US 30 Drag Strip in northern Indiana. I was amazed when I saw it racing here in Tucson. All the sponsor's lettering indicated it was a Tucson based car. So I asked the lady standing by the car about it. It seems the owner was going to school in Gary Indiana that summer and they took the car with them and raced at US 30. Small world. The car was owned by Tom & Gail Edwards. If anyone knows of their whereabouts, let me know.

1975 Racing Season

TV Tommy Ivo, March 1975

TV Tommy Ivo vs Shirley Muldowney, March 1975

At this match race, I don't recall all the details of who won how many but there was an interesting incident that occurred here. Sirley was in the right hand lane and TV Tommy was in the left hand lane. After doing her burn out, Shirley for some unknown reason, made a left hand turn into the left lane right in front of TV Tommy as he started his burn out. TV Tommy had to swerve into the right lane to avoid hitting Shirley. Anyone have any futher info on this incident?

Bob Perry's "Fugitive" Corvette Wheelstander

Bob Perry's "Hell on Wheels" Tank Wheelstander

"Dandy" Dick Landy

Injected Nitro Digger - Cirile Leons?

Shaky's Pizza Camaro (Abrams Bros) vs Vega

Vega Pro Stock, Behar/Kim/Lopez

Camaro Pro Stock, Don Lorentzen

Vega panel funny car, "Maroney & Day"

Jet Dragsters

I don't remember for sure what year they were there. The photo's are not dated. Memmory tells me there were 8 jet cars there that night but I only have photo's of 4, so my memory must be off a bit. Quite an awesome sight to see at night though.

"Time Machine" vs "Complusion"