As we hear every day about more and more drag strips closing across the country for a variety or reasons, we have hope that one might be revived! And not just revived, but brought back after 40+ years of sitting abandoned!

Tri-City Dragway outside of Saginaw, Michigan (technically, Freeland), sits on property next to MBS International Airport. From what I have been able to work out, the track opened in 1966 and closed in 1978. Since then, the track had sat completely abandoned. Which is a good thing for once! Nobody came in and bulldozed it or destroyed anything of the original grounds. It was as though someone just locked the door and walked away. All the stands and structures were just left to be consumed by the weeds and trees. That was until 2023!

In early 2023, Tony Svetic was on his way to becoming and Eagle Scout, and he had a very inventive way to complete his service project. He worked out to clean up the old Tri-City Dragway and host a car show there. He organized it with the airport and accomplished his goal in 2023 to rounding success.

The show was such a success that people wanted to do it again, but Tony had other concerns in his future with going to school at Ferris State to become a heavy equipment mechanic. His friend Micah Fleming stepped in and took over the show for 2024. He was able to line up everything needed for a huge show, food, volunteers, old racers, etc.

It all came together on August 11th 2024 with a huge success. The old track was filled with old cars and new! There was a large portion of cars that had raced at the facility back in the day. They went as far as completely clearing all the trees in front of the old tower, and building a make shift drag racing tree, along with reproduced signage that mirrored the originals.

Micah is on his way to putting together a group to try to get the old race track back open and racing! Everyone is rooting for him to succeed. If you want to follow along with the restoration, you can follow them HERE.

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