US 30 DRAG STRIP Abandoned, Why?
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2017
- This was one of our stops wile a visit with my wife's brother in Indiana, we just had to put our feet on that property to say we have been there. It was sad to see it all gone, and all grown up with weeds and trees. Remember the old radio WLS in Chicago, Hearing, SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Hope you enjoy this little clip. Oh! and please subscribe. Location: 7920 Clay Street, Hobart, IN
Condition: Grass and Weeds
Originally Photographed: August 2001
Link--www.nwitimes.com/news/local/la...
link---- www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs... - Розваги
I grew up going to this dragstrip. Have seen pretty much every old school big name in top fuel and funny car race on this track. Jeff Galka with the 1970 candy red Chevelle called Primo introduced me to drag racing when I was 11 years old by letting me tag along nearly every Sunday, Sunday, Sunday..., and I've been hooked ever since. If anyone knows what became of Jeff, I'd sure love to say hello.
When you are looking down the track, the pits were on the left side. There were bleachers on both sides but the bleachers on the right side were larger. The pit pass was 1 dollar and on Sunday late when all the runs were done, you could run your car and get a time slip dated with the ET and speed. I don't know if they charged for that, I never did it. I had a 57 Chevy convertible with a 283, single barrel, hydraulic lifters, automatic. I don't think their timing equipment went to that high of a number. Great memories, good friends and the drivers would talk to you as if they knew you. It was a relaxed atmosphere, $4 to get in, cheap fun and you could stay there all day. They would threaten to check your trunk for food or beer, but they never did. Crowd was well behaved and very little trouble except there was bad blood between some of the drivers and crews that seemed to spill over once a day. I never saw a fight in the stands and I was out there at least 40 times. Now its all about money, they care about the crews and sponsors and not the fans at all. There is a big disconnect between them and the fans. They seem to forget it was the fans who made the sport.
Thank you for the info, and I know what you mean, It's all about the money. I been to about 6 NHRA events at Joliet and Brainard. Very expensive. I stoped all together now. I can't affordable hotel expense and travel. Thanks for you support and the lay of the land. I was just going by pictures that I thought that it looked like back in the early 80s.
As a kid growing up in Northern Indiana in the 60's. You listened to WLS radio, heard that commercial many many times. Unfortunately never made it there. Sad to see it gone. Thanks for the memory.
This was AHRA not NHRA........i was here last in 2011 metal detecting with my GF.We found mainly a billion pull tabs....and a few silver coins.The AHRA logo was still bright a readable .We also found some small car parts from like a fender well.Bleacher seat bracket.One time i drove by here in about 94 doing work on a nearby home.Plumbing wise.....and the com tower was still standing.Me and a friend were going to explore the area....but never got around to it.....darn it.I even remember back in mid 70's when some black guy was shot over a bet in the north stands.Next day read about it in the Hammond Times........Loved coming here many times...Many good memories of youth
In the early 70's I ran a 55 Chevy with a beefed up 409. Snapped a rear U-joint my first time out. Later ran a 67 GTO.. Thanks for the video and good memories.
If you grew up in the Chicagoland area, there were 3 dragstrips you took your car to: US-30, Oswego, and The Grove (Union Grove WI). The Grove is now Great Lakes Dragway. Oswego and US-30 are now only great memories.
Have went and explored both US 30 and Oswego. Both are extremely cool in their own way. Both of them you could just feel the history resonating. Da Grove is still alove and well! Better then ever
One of my earliest memories is going on a weekend drive and my father would stop along the road so we could look under the fence directly behind the staging lanes and getting pelted with rocks and rubber when they did burnouts. Then we would hop back in the car and listen to my father tell stories of racing there with our grandfather and how our mother made him stop when we came along
Just came across you video. I remember U.S. 30 dragway in York, Pennsylvania. Closed down in the seventies. Brought back a lot of great memories.
My father had many trophies from here. He ran a Honda 754, to this day my mom is still adamant about how much she hated that bike and Route 30 raceway. Me though, I would of loved to been able to watch him run
US 30 was AHRA from day one till season open 1984 the last race every put on by the AHRA was at a track the new stockholder built in La, that never took off off. BTW the AHRA were the iventers of what we call the Christmas tree not the NHRA!
I used to race at U.S 30, I still have a lot of trophy's and memories from there. Now I go down to U.S 66 to spectate.
I never got to see us 30 wile it was going. I also go to US 66
66 is closed as of 2020.
Now we go to Route 41 Dragstrip.
Get you a car and make some runs.
So sad to see this part of Americana history in this condition. It was a symbol of America back then to be competitive and be the BEST you could be and strive to be a WINNER! That mindset today is pretty much gone, and that's the SAD part.
Unfortunately times change, People move in and want things made different for them. And from what I understand it's become very expensive. There used to be a track near Frederick MD called "75 and 80"....gone for a few years due to development.
Times are always changing.
When did it close down? There is a lot of overgrowth.
What kind of camera did you use on this video?
It closed in 1984. The camera I used was a canon G30.
They wanted to reopen this back up in the late 80's because it was still entact....but by that time many new homes were built close by and the noise would be too intense.I rented an apartment house back in 1980 just off of Taft and Old 330.I could hear the cars clearly and wished i would have started going again.The new owner stopped paying taxes on the property and other related shortcomings for many years....and also many big name drivers were not getting their win money paid to them.There still is Rt.41 Dragstrip in Morocco.Indiana.Back in the 90's we attended the All Harley Drags for about 4 years in a row.That was a pretty fun time.
When you go there now you can feel the presence of the NitroGod.
OH! you can say that again. I could feel everything when I stood on that empty track. I could almost see visions and heir the load roar as they left the starting line. And the crowd cheering. It was amazing. It was like going back in time. Thank you aakar88 I really appreciate your comment.
James Sween The last time I was there was over 5 yrs ago, it truly felt how you described! Talk about haunted, the feeling was eerie, you could just feel the crowd, the burnouts, the vibration, most of all the history of that magical place. Remember seeing fuel cars on 98% with fire spitting out of the pipes, or the Run Tuffs with tunnel rams and velocity stacks jumping all over the place!
The logo painted on the track is AHRA, not NHRA!
Hi James I found it. That's been abandoned for some years hasn't it. Catch up soon. Your UK friend Carl
Yes it has. NRHA moved to Joliet Illinois, that is a beautiful track. It cost allot to go in for the event. I try to go each year, but my wife can't go anymore. She has a bad heart.
You would race for the first half to the timing lights.then had a quarter of mile to slow down to make a left hand turn on the return road get your time slip and go back to pits.
At the end of the track was a fence on the other side were homes . You had to turn left to go back
The track will never be again
That's because of US66 In Joliet. Brand new track, and not far from US30. Can't be helped. Thanks for watching.
@@jamessween I live right next to 66 and sadly it just shut its doors I’m pretty sure the drag strip is shut too.
Towards the end, it got kinda rough. The “clients “ changed……
Use to love to watch No Big Thing run there, my sister's boyfriends ran a 60 something Chevy Nova called Crystal Blue Persuasion, and later a Kaw 900 called Canary Kaw Racing it was painted Canary Yellow
Yea, I remember seeing " no big thing " run there also. One of the few cars I remember - that was a long time ago !
Clay Street Baby !
Closer to home.
So many gone, the old Ct Dragway in Connecticut is now the testing grounds for Consumer Reports.
ACTUALLY THE TRACK WAS IN MERRILLVILLE ON THE HOBART LINE
Oh, I never knew that, thanks for the comment.
Is it on someone’s property?
Can you walk down the strip? Or drive it for that matter?
It is posted Private, but if you want to see it live, you can park your car and walk in, but that is up to you. There are allot of people that take there car and do burnouts on the track.But that is about all you can do.The track is all broken up. When we were there, they had a berm piled up so you can't do it anymore. But I don't think you would have any problem. We parked in, right off the road. And then you will see the track right from the car. And we walked down the track. It's kind of hard to find. We ask someone, and they were really nice and showed us how to find it.Thanks for watching.
@@jamessween looking at the layout on Google Earth, it looks like you can't turn directly onto the racing surface from the street. However, there appears to be a driveway just south of the track that connects to the staging lanes and racing surface. I'm guessing that was the main entrance when the track was active.
Why did it close down?
I been trying to get other peoples feed back on it, and what I learned so far is that the NHRA kill that track and put the AHRA out of business. We Have A IHRA here in Wisconsin at Union Grove and it seems to do pretty good.I go to that one every year, you can see that one on this channel as well. ua-cam.com/video/nm3kwie4upg/v-deo.html
The fans and drivers lost interest, and the will to invest the time, money and effort to keep it going. Drag racing is from a bygone era. It worked in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. By the 1980s it was losing money.
@@jamessween What I always heard from my Dad who raced their in the late 60's and worked construction in the area his whole life was that it the local homeowners that had started moving in and got it shut down. Rumors of a ongoing court battled to reopen it, but remember getting sad about a news story that the owners finally gave up in the 90's I think
you can still see it on google maps
Ya, It will be there as long as they never develop the land into the condos. Thanks for watching and your support.
Google Street view link: www.google.com/maps/@41.4756181,-87.277862,3a,75y,259.24h,60.52t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sh99jer3aOm8JDwmlFDpf2Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Development of the property around the track. People moved in. They were not going to put up with the noise.
I was told that NHRA took over, then they built the new track in Joliet Il. Now everyone drags just up the road at that track. After all it's not really that far. Thanks for your comment.
@meangreen69Nova It's like people that buy a house next to an airport and then star to complain about the noise!
Cleetus is dealing with this problem. The town says they back him. What happens in 10 years when a different group is in control
It's in Merrillville indiana
sad.....i use to go there for the races........
It is sad! But you can see it all at Joliet at that new track.
THE CLOUDY DAY MADE BACKDROP FOR A SAD DAY BUMMER IT CLOSED
"Sunday! Sunday! At whalin' US 30 drag strip!"
I remember them days!
Jackas's complaining about noise is what happened to it same thing that happened to our drag strip shuffletown in North Carolina
Ya stupid people! There is many of them
YEP AHRA NEVER NHRA
Good days gone youth now play on their phones and could not change a tire
The eblom was s
Ahra america's hot rod association
Change....
Can people come there in race?
Absolutely not! You would not get far. The track is very bad. Infact it might not even be there anymore. They might have ripped out.
AHRA not NHRA
Your Right!!
Eerie.
A little you might say!
Be fun to run a metal detector around.
That wasn't an NHRA track, it was AHRA. The NHRA is what helped kill it.
Are you serious? I didn't know that. Thanks for informing me on that. You probably know way more then I do about that track. Pretty sad!
NHRA?? More like AHRA.
Thanks for your comment.