The birth of Drag Racing began in Southern California over 50 years ago. Drag racing is America's largest participant motor sport, which also attracts large crowds of spectators. The premise of drag racing is very simple; it is a straight-line acceleration contest between two vehicles over a measured distance of a quarter mile. The objective is for one of the vehicles cross to the finish line first.

In the 1960's there were over a dozen drag strips, that one could choose to race at or attend as a spectator. Ironically, as the "sport" grew across the nation, it began to gradually disappear from the California scene in the late 1970's and early 80's due to escalating land values and the encroachment of housing tracks. Today, Pomona Raceway is the only "professional" track left. Unfortunately, the track is only open for three race weekends per year.

In the late 1990's, many different groups began competing to become the first, in over 30 years, to try and build a new "professional" track in Southern California, however all of these efforts were unsuccessful. Until our group, All American Racing came along to prove that building a new drag strip could be accomplished. Our goal was to find a home for the track by the end of 2000. After a year and a half of searching available property and looking for a city that would welcome such a project, we found our answer in the City of Banning.

Our first order of business was to help the Banning Chamber of Commerce put on two very successful drag races at their local airport. The city knew we were serious once they saw that we were able to increase the Chamber's fundraising profits by more then 300%. Within four months, our group received "exclusive rights to build a track facility" in their town and the plans for the project were approved by the Planning Commission. Soon after, in August 2001, the City Council gave the project the approval to move forward.

On December 6, 2003, after 3 long and hard years of going through public hearings, commissions, city council and various delays, the earth trembled with the sound of heavy machinery at the Drag City project site. From All American Racing’s developers, Andy & Ron Marocco's perspective, the most important thing was seeing the beginning of machines clearing a path to their dream.

By May 2004 the first step in construction was completed with Offsite Improvements that included a newly extended and paved street that brought the public right of way to the drag strip property which also became known as the Main Entrance. With the new street entrance came the installation and connection of new water, gas and electric lines, as well as streetlights, sidewalks, curbing, gutters and handicap ramps. The Drag City racing facility itself will take several months to complete and is slated to open in the Fall of 2005.

Drag City will became the much-needed answer to the illegal racing that has plagued Southern California for the past several years now. This track was really born out of a necessity for a place to racecars legally. Street racing is a well-documented problem the news media and movies have brought to the public's attention. Drag City solves all these problems by being a permanent facility that has a professionally prepared surface to race on and bright lights for night racing. In essence, it is the only true solution to Illegal Street Racing in Southern California. However, Drag City has even more to offer. It offers a home to all those other racers who are considered amateurs, semi-professional, and professional drag racers too. The track is a racer's track where all types of racecars are welcomed and not singled out.

While the facility will provide many diverse racing programs and special promotions, its main role will be to provide fun, affordable family entertainment that will attract many new visitors to the facility and community every year. It is expected that the Drag City facility will have a thirty-five million dollar ($35,000,000) economic impact on the local economies, not to mention that our local streets will be much safer.

The racetrack will become a new source of pride for the City of Banning and Southern California. As the host of new events that serve the ever-increasing national motor sports market, it will inevitably be responsible for generating television broadcasts that will be seen around the country, which will showcase the City of Banning and Drag City sponsors in a positive and exciting manner. Bringing more visitors, tourists, and businesses to the community and making Mopar Drag City "The Place to Race". 

Phase 1- Offsite Improvements COMPLETED

Half Track View -  Looking down the track, spectators will notice that they are angled away from the drag strip. Unlike most drag strip facilities that built spectator stands that are parallel with the track at 0 degrees, Mopar Drag City's spectators stands will be offset 3 degrees to allow for the fans to have a better view of the whole race from start to the finish. Because our track will also be 23 feet below the natural grade, our seating area has been designed to take advantage of the natural 3:1 slopes to act as our superstructure for the stands. Both sides of the tracks will be limited to just 12 rows of seating for a "stadium" feel, that puts the fans closer to the action. We will have a total of 10,000 individual flip up seats with backs and cup holders. Seating past half track will be stadium style concrete for future expansion and used for extra seating for bigger super shows where seat cushions can be used.  

Aerial View of Mopar Drag City - Overall northwest view shows the main road entrance to the facility from Barbour Street, which then brings you down into 1 of  3 parking lots (with exits to Westward and Scott Street). At the top is the pit area for the racers and their support trailers. The Sunoco Gas complex for racing fuel is located at the top corner of the pit area. Looking at the track its easy to see that the track is laid out in a West to East direction. We designed it this way because most of our racing events take place during the evening hours and we didn't want racers to have the sun directly in their eyes at dusk as they watched the "Christmas Tree countdown" and raced down the track. At night the powerful Musco Lights will light the track as if it were daytime. Twelve VIP Suites are located on both sides of the track 23 feet above the action, while the Mopar Drag City "race control" tower sits behind the whole length of the starting line and watches over the racing and operations of the track. Looking to the center is our main facility entrance, administration buildings and our "courtyard" where spectators will find various automotive displays, restroom facilities, souvenir stands and of course the concession court.

Track Specs:

• Length: 1/4mile drag strip 
• Altitude: 2,100 ft

Altitude Correction Factor: 2,100 ft  (the same as THE STRIP in Las Vegas)

To convert your Quarter Mile Elapsed Time (ET) and MPH to sea level times, multiply the applicable factor by your ET or MPH.   

ET = .9757    MPH = 1.0255