Anyone remember Rocky Mtn. Dragway at Commerce, CO?

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by Eddie Rezac

I certainly remember the place. I won the Div. 5 championship there in 1977, with my 65 Chevelle. It was the final Div 5. race of the season, and at the end of the day, Judy Lilly and I were tied for points. So Zim, our Div. director had us run a tie breaker for the championship, and she lit the RED bulb.
Eddie Rezac

Eddie,

I'm certain that the same place that you won your championship at (in '77), is the same place that Bill is talking about, and I'm thinking about too...Rocky Mountain Dragway, in Denver/Commerce City. I pulled up a webpage about a "Metalshapers Association", and they apparently used to make parachutes for cars such as "Guzman & Ward's Corvair 'Assassination' Funny Car", back in May, '68, plus they showed photos of other cars at that track driven by "Alan Bockla", (who was the first drag racer to reach 200 mph at that altitude..per "Pete Garramone" who took the shown photos, and made the quotes of those achievements at that track, by him and others).

Aparently that track has had several names, and Rocky Mountain Dragway must have been the first, because those pictures reminded me of the same drag strip that was later called "Dragway Denver", during the years that you spoke of Eddie, because I was there as a racing fan/newbe racer during that era, and I watched you win the runoff from Judy...wasn't your car Orange in color, and a 4spd.? My guess is that track that was originally called Rocky Mountain Dragway from at least '65-'68, was next called "Thunder Road" for a stint, then became "Dragway Denver" (sometime around '75), and held that name until '78 when it was called "Thunder Road Race/Dragway" again for only the one year. It spent it's last two drag strip years being called "Mile High Raceway", and after that the strip was split in half---the northern half became a dirt oval and was called "Rocky Mountain Speedway", while the southern part was made into a road course and became "Second Creek Raceway". As of 2005 it appears that the track is being leveled and is now being developed for housing/businesses, and about the only part of all that history that remains is the house that the owner of the track lived in (if it's still even there...what with the building of "Denver International Airport", just east of there, the "Rocky Mountain Arsenal/Wildlife Refuge" to the south/southwest of it, and housing communities from Commerce City encroaching from the west/northwest of it)?

The track was just east of Commerce City, north of the Arsenal, and you had to either take 96th ave. east to a turn that became Buckley Road (from Hwy 2 from Commerce City), or you had to drive up I-70 from Tower Road, to 88th Ave. Turn left and head west to Buckley Rd. (from the south/east), then make a right turn and drive up towards 96th Ave. to get to the entrance of the place.

WOW, I'm REALLY DATING MYSELF NOW (lol), but what memories that track had for me too...I won five bracket races in six final rounds in '79 at that track, and for 2-3 months I was actually a professional racer, driving the same '76 Chevy Vega that I later semi-finaled at the Div. V ET Finals with up there in Marion, Sd. Moreover, that track helped prepare me to win the '77 KING OF THE HILL MEMORIAL DAY HIGH SCHOOL DRAGS CHAMPIONSHIP, with at "BANDIMERE SPEEDWAY"!!!

Thanks Bill and Eddie for bringing back some great memories of one of my most successful race tracks in my history, along with Bandimeres & Thunder Valley Raceway (up there in great old Marion, Sd)!!!