Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Funny cars line up at the starting line of the Kingman Route 66 Drags in Kingman, Arizona. Organizers want a similar event in Tucumcari, but state highway officials turned down the request.
If drag-racing events are coming to Tucumcari in 2025 and 2026, it won't be on Route 66.
Assistant city manager Renee Hayoz said during the city commission meeting last Tuesday the New Mexico Department of Transportation rejected a proposal to hold drag-racing events on the city's Route 66, patterned after the Kingman Route 66 Drags in Kingman, Arizona.
Hayoz said NMDOT, which holds jurisdiction over the city's Route 66 corridor, "shot us down" on the idea. The agency cited liability and safety concerns, she said.
Hayoz said city manager Paula Chacon, who was out of town during the meeting, would meet with co-organizer Doug Woodward on alternatives on city-owned streets for the events.
Among the alternatives being considered are Lake Street and Camino del Coronado.
Hayoz said after the meeting that NMDOT was immovable in its rejection of the events on Route 66 in Tucumcari.
"They turned us down flat," she said.
Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Lopez, who attended last Tuesday's meeting by phone, said a drag-racing event would be a big boost economically, and the city needs to "press the case" to preserve it.
Commissioner CJ Oglesby agreed.
"It's a big priority we need to jump on," he said.
Woodward and Bill Delaney in August initially proposed to the city's Lodgers Tax Advisory Board a Tucumcari version of the Kingman Route 66 Street Drags in September or October 2026, during the 100th anniversary of Route 66.
The Tucumcari drag-racing event would have taken place in on east Route 66, near the vacant Kmart building. The lodgers board supported the proposal enthusiastically.
Board member Al Patel also proposed "a soft event" for the Route 66 drag races in 2025.
Woodward and Delaney didn't have a firm date for the 2026 event because they were awaiting to see when a similar fall event in Bowling Green, Kentucky, would take place.
The Kingman Route 66 Street Drags is described as "the largest legal street races in the world." The three-day ticketed event closes a one-eighth-mile stretch of Route 66 and features races by up to 300 muscle cars or motorcycles.
Woodward said the last Kingman Street Drags drew 13,000 spectators. Kingman's 35 motels saw an additional $80,000 in revenue from the event, he said.
Josh Noble of the Kingman Office of Tourism stated in an email to the Quay County Sun he believed Route 66 in Kingman was the city's jurisdiction.
"However, about 6 months out, we start having monthly meetings leading up to the event," Noble wrote. "There are representatives from several City Departments (police, fire, parks, roads, tourism, risk) as well as representatives from the County Sheriff's Office, ADOT and AZ DPS. Everyone has to be happy to move forward.
"It's a real process, but they've been organizing these events on for many years and have developed a reputation. I'm not sure what the outcome would be it was presented as a first time event today."
