For Dragsters, One Last Ride

Closure of Md. Track Ends a 45-Year Tradition of Fast Cars in Open Space

At 120 mph, Jay Crawford saw Elvis -- which is his way of saying he thought he was going to die.

All he wanted to do was show off a little for the fans at the 75-80 Dragway, an asphalt strip laid down on a Frederick County farm years ago so amateur hot rodders would not have to race on public highways.

So Crawford removed the wheelie bars that keep the front of his candy apple red Chevy Nova from jumping too high off the track. Up it went, veering across the lane and ripping into a guardrail that sent it spinning toward the finish like a beer can.

"I actually remember right before I hit the guardrail saying to myself, 'I do not want to die in this car tonight,' " Crawford said.

Now that the surgical pins have come out of his fingers on one hand and a steel plate has been sewn into his other arm, Crawford said he wanted just one more go at the 75-80 Dragway. But the chance -- for him and all the Sunday drivers and the professionals who have run at the strip for 45 years -- may never come again.

Today, the green starting lights at the drag strip will flicker for the last time. Acre after acre of rooftops in the new mini-city just down the road in Urbana hint at what will come next for a venue as famous for its homemade chili as it is for speed.

The drag strip, tucked among pastures and cornfields near the intersection of Routes 75 and 80 in Monrovia, has been sold to a developer under a $3 million contract that could bring as many as 1,600 houses, said track manager Bill Wilcom. To many in the community, the closure is another sign that the suburbs are crowding out their rural way of life.

"This track hurts me to close. It holds all my memories inside," said Crawford, 34, of Damascus.

Houses had been planned for the spot once before, but only a few, and at a time when just about everyone in the county who did not live in the city of Frederick lived on a dairy farm. NASCAR was still an adolescent relegated to dirt tracks in the deep South, and the only drag strips nearby were lonely country roads. Wilcom, who manages the track and shares ownership with his brothers, said they persuaded their father to allow them to open the drag strip.

When it opened in September 1960 as the 75-80 Drag-A-Way, there was not even a light tower -- known as a Christmas tree -- to signal a race's start.

"It was done just the way it was out on an abandoned highway," Wilcom said. "They said it wouldn't last a year."

Last week, as a nearby church's parking lot was filling with the vehicles of worshipers, a line of cars was waiting to enter the pits. Entry cost $20 to race, $10 to watch.