Drag racing: the strip South Bend never had

1957 — 2021

A negative, in the city's own words: South Bend never had a drag strip, and the absence is documented by the city's own young drivers. In April 1957 the Riley High School newspaper, the Hi-Times, editorialized for one: "If the community of South Bend had a drag-strip it would give these would-be-engineers a perfect place to test their automotive ideas." No strip was built in the city in the record this history could reach. What South Bend's drag racers had was the short trip east.

Osceola's strip, at the boundary: Osceola Dragway stood in Osceola, east of the city in Elkhart County — Osceola's track, printed here at pointer size as the strip South Bend used. Art Chizum opened it in 1957, a quarter-mile strip through a property of some 165 to 170 acres, and ran it until his death in 2000; his widow Ruth ran it every season after. It held NHRA sanction in its years and IHRA sanction later; Warren Johnson tested a Pro Stock Camaro there in the late 1970s and early 1980s; it had no metal guardrails until 2001, when hand-me-downs arrived from U.S. 131 Dragway. A 2019 expansion — renamed Hoosier Motorsports & Business Park, approved 2–1 by the Elkhart County Commission — did not save it: after a pandemic-shortened 2020 season the track announced its gates would close permanently, and it did not open for 2021, after 63 years.

Sources:

1. Riley High School Hi-Times, 28 April 1957 — the editorial plea for a South Bend drag strip (via the school's preserved paper).
2. Drag Illustrated, "On the Road" (2015 and 2018); Associated Press, via The Post & Mail (2021); Performance Racing Industry, 28 October 2019 — Osceola Dragway: Chizum's 1957 opening and tenure to 2000, Ruth Chizum's seasons after, the NHRA and IHRA sanctions, the Warren Johnson testing, the 2001 guardrails from U.S. 131, the 2019 expansion and 2–1 county approval, the Hoosier Motorsports & Business Park name, and the permanent closing announced after 2020, at 63 years.