Thunder By The Beach: Grand Bend Dragway 1964 to 1969

Grand Bend Dragway was very much like many other early drag strips, a former World War Two training base airport repurposed into a drag strip. The facility was sparse at best, with little in the way of refinements or amenities. However, there was one thing that made it stand out from other drag strips. The beach resort town of Grand Bend was 2 miles away, an already thriving community featuring all kinds of great things to do. To suddenly add a drag strip into the already fun atmosphere of the area provided a whole new level of excitement for nearly every young person in Ontario, especially during drag racing’s most exciting era. For Grand Bend Dragway, the timing couldn’t have been better. From the track’s opening day in July of 1964 to its last race at the end of the 1969 season, the beach town and the drag strip had suddenly become inextricably intertwined. Read more