DSH: The Livonia Drag Strip
Years of Operation: 1953-54
The Livonia Drag Strip held the first legal drag race in Michigan and was obviously one of the first racing venues in SouthEast Michigan. It existed during a time when Auto Racing and Drag Racing in particular was in its infancy.
This historic tire burner in the Summer of 1953 was conducted at Amrhein just off of Eckles in Livonia, and was organized by the then-newly-formed Michigan Hot Rod Association. The Chevrolet Spring & Bumper plant, here in Livonia, Michigan, provided the backdrop for these wild rodders to get their kicks. The facility was new at the time and gave racers a venue to let off some steam as well as get their racing blood flowing.
In 1953 Robert Baumgartner, a lieutenant with the Livonia Police Department, sought permission from General Motors to use a concrete entry road into their new Chevrolet factory for drag racing on weekends. The road, called Amrhein, runs between Eckles Road and Levan Road and was an almost perfect stretch of pavement for this purpose.
Lieutenant Baumgartner had joined the Livonia Police Department in 1951 and was concerned about Detroit city boys coming out to the "Sticks" and drag racing on rural roads and thought this would be a good way to protect racers and generate some interest in the sport.
The "provisioned track" was a ¾-mile long stretch of cement ending in dirt, and the automaker would authorize the use of this newly-built road for this exciting and high-speed purpose. It was a hit and an immediate success with the local Hot Rod Community.
Races would then be supervised by the Livonia Police Department for safety purposes and to keep the people safe who attended and participated in the racing.
Baumgartner was successful in organizing un-sanctioned week-end drag racing with one stipulation: If you had received a traffic violation ticket, you were not allowed to race for a month!
This plan and stipulation worked and curbed the street racing drastically, now that racers had a venue to legally "drag" on. Lt Baumgartner would later be instrumental in interesting NHRA and MHRA to run santioned races at the same location.
In the height of its popularity here, it attracted 4,000 spectators to observe 93 racers compete for the checkered flag and went on to inspire some racers to open other venues, and many to build better and safer racecars, and venues for those fire-breathing "monsters" that continue even to to this day.
Video Clip of the Livonia Drag Strip in Action:
*From thehotrodsofdearborn.com*
