The sounds of planes landing and taking off can often be heard at the Orange Airport. However, in the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s, there was also a different sound at the airport: the sound of drag racing.
According to Bill Thorp, a resident of Athol and a former Orange drag racer, the racing began at the airport in 1954. The races were held once a month, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club, and were sanctioned by the National Hot Rod Association.
The drag racers who came to the airport, according to Thorp, came from many parts of New England from Maine to Connecticut. There were a variety of cars that were raced, Thorp continued, from modified to street-driven cars.
“The cars that raced there included street cars, roadsters, dragsters and altered wheel-base cars. The majority were homemade,” said John Durfee the originator, producer and organizer of the Orange Drag Strip Reunion, an annual drag strip gathering named for the Orange Drag Strip races.
Thorp said he began racing when he was 19 years old. “It took me about a year to build the car. You had to have a driver’s license to race. I won two trophies … I raced in 1960 and 1961 had to stop as I went into the Air Force in January 1962.”
Of the Orange races, Thorp said he has a lot of good memories.
“Among my favorite memories were all the people who had the same interest in cars. I made a lot of friends.” He estimates that the races attracted about 1,000 spectators. Thorp said although he no longer races, he still has his drag car, which he drives every summer, and still maintains an interest in drag racing.
Former Drag Race Circuit Racer Jack Doyle of Sanbornville, N.H., also raced in Orange.
“I started racing at 16. I just wanted to go fast, faster than the next guy. I made my dragster in my garage.”
Of racing in Orange, he said, “It was nice, good times … You had to watch out for parachutes landing at the same time. We raced in Sanford, Maine twice a month, once a month in Charlestown, R.I., and once a month in Orange.”
These days, Doyle serves on the board of directors of the North East Motor Sports Museum and is involved in the New England Dragway, in Epping, N.H.
There were professional Drag Racers in Orange sometimes, Thorp said. Among those professional events which attracted professionals according to Durfee, included The Drag Racing New England Nationals in 1954. “When the nationals were held there it attracted racers from across the country.”
The drag racing at the Orange Airport ended in the early 1970s.
The Orange Drag Strip Reunion, is held at a variety of airports in the area and includes both Nostalgia Drag Racing and a car show.
Durfee, who is involved in the reunion, said he became interested in drag racing when he was young. “I saw it on the Wide, Wide World of Sports and there were also Hot Rod Magazines.”
He continued, there are hopes of having a reunion next year but it depends on the COVID-19 situation. “If it does not happen, we will regroup and try for the next year,” said Durfee. More information can be found at www.dragreunion.com.
For those interested in learning more about Car Racing in New England, including Drag Racing, the North East Motor Sports Museum in Loudon, N.H., at New Hampshire Motor Speedway opened in June 2017. It welcomes donations of any Orange Drag Racing or other New England Racing memorabilia. It can be contacted through the website www.nemsmuseum.com