In a day and age when the closing of drag strips is more common than some would accept, Wild Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR) offered data on how much a drag strip can impact the local economy. In 30 days they recorded their contributions of 30 days from September to October, including five days when the strip was repurposed for road racing. 

“This was a tremendous month with a diverse offering of racing on so many levels,” said Chris Blair, WWTR’s Executive Vice President and General Manager. “To accomplish so much in such a brief period of time demonstrates what World Wide Technology Raceway and its dedicated staff is capable of. Once again, we have proven to the motorsports industry that WWTR is the place to host important events.
 
“We attracted thousands of racers from across the United States, Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Russia. This generated a huge contribution to the local economy. These racers stayed, ate, shopped, and were entertained in this area – on both sides of the river – and we are proud of the positive economic impact our events produced.

Starting on September 8 with a weekend designed to provide an alternative to illegal street racing, the local car community was treated to the Ranken Technical College presents Midnight Madness fueled by NOS Energy Drink, which attracted 350 street-legal drag racing entries who made more than 500 passes down the quarter mile. On Saturday, September 9, Import Face-Off Street Legends logged 486 passes down the strip from a total of 200 vehicles. Both nights also featured a large turnout of nearly 100 drift participants, car show registrants, and event-record spectator attendance for each.”

The drag strip went silent in its conventional sense, as for six days, the strip was repurposed into a road course for the Gateway SpeedTour Trans Am event. 

While this event was going on, the operations team went to work on another area of the strip. They began the process of setting up corporate hospitality tents, moving in food and souvenir vendors, building catering compounds, and performing a complete makeover of signage and painting for the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Midwest Nationals.

When the NHRA came to town for the third stop of the Countdown to the Championship playoff series, the event’s 400 entrants accounted for 1,844 runs down the track. The event sold out on Saturday, bookended by strong attendance on Friday and Sunday. 

Just one day after the national event concluded, the Class Racer Reunion, a high-dollar shootout for Stock, Super Stock, Super Comp, and Super Gas on Tuesday, October 3, featured 361 cars and 1,100 passes down the quarter mile.
 
And finally, the last major Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series events east of the Rockies took place Wednesday through Sunday, October 4-8. The NHRA Regional-Divisional doubleheader boasted 697 entries for the Regional and 650 entrants for the Divisional, for a combined total of 3,704 runs.
 
“Thanks to the efforts of our team and the hospitality shown to our attendees by our community partners, we are now receiving more interest in new events coming to WWTR. Those new events, along with our strong existing line-up, have us optimistic that 2024 will see our growth continue. “
 
The drag strip, in 30 days, hosted seven events, 15,176 passes down the strip by 5,793 entries.