Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Hell's Half Acre

I read a post on the Remember Albuquerque Facebook group, about a famous 1/2 mile dirt track that existed in Albuquerque in the 1940's, called "Hell's Half Acre". The writer says it was where the Terrace Drive-In used to be, on East Central, and that the southern curve is still visible on Google Earth. Sure enough, it is:



Gotta love that name. Have you ever heard of it?



From a book titled Dirt Track Auto Racing 1919-1941:

New Mexico had even less known racing - this on two tracks in Albuquerque. A track called All-American Speedway existed from 1926 to 1946 but might have only had a handful of races. Races on August 19, 1926, and January 1, 1927, can be documented - there must have been other races. The other Albuquerque track was Hells Half Acre speedway that was active in 1939 for at least one race. From the name of the track it might have run jalopies, so maybe New Mexico had only one 1920s and '30 race car speedway?

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3 comments:

BitMonkey said...

I remember the name of the Terrace Drive-In but not exactly where it was located. Never heard of Hell's Half Acre before.

Flathead45 said...

The Terrace drive-in was still around when I was in High School I think. It was on the south side of Central avenue, just east of where Zuni intersects with Central.

Unknown said...

It was in the same property as cormit Speedway

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