The buzz of excitement was especially intense throughout the Midwest racing community since there\u2019s a definite need for more places to race. Odessa is approximately 35 minutes east of Kansas City, and let\u2019s face it, there\u2019s not an abundance of dragstrips in this region when compared to say, the Carolinas, where you can realistically drive to around 30 dragstrips within a two-state area on any given weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Racers and fans in the Kansas City area would have been excited about any new track being constructed, but what they got in Flying H is quite a bit more than your average Saturday night honky-tonk that was built on a shoestring budget. This sprawling facility is impressive and can host a wide array of events.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many people are hopeful for a NHRA national event to be held here, and they were disappointed when early plans fell through. Track owner Scott Higgs and manager Blake Housley definitely entertain the idea of hosting a national meet someday, but they\u2019re more concerned with accomplishing a few more short-term upgrades. \u201cWe\u2019re going to need more asphalt and some additional infrastructure work in order to host a national event, but yeah, it\u2019s a goal down the road,\u201d Housley tells me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A dedicated concessions building, new bathrooms, as well as restructuring the road that connects the pits to the staging lanes are all near-term plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Flying H made headlines in mid-September when they hosted the much-anticipated Mid-West Drag Racing Series Smackdown, which featured the largest payout in Pro Mod history. The event was slated for three full days of action that also included other standout classes such as Top Alcohol Funny Car, Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, and they even booked in the \u201cBone Shaker\u201d jet-powered semi-truck!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Naturally, this was the event I didn\u2019t want to miss, so I made the trek to Missouri. Not surprisingly, the pits were packed with great-looking and fast race cars, many of which were towed great distances, as drivers were hoping for the big payday in Pro Mod. The event certainly had the makings for a monumental outcome, but the weather would simply not cooperate this weekend. In the end, it was lingering rain (and the threat of more rain) that forced the cancellation of the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s Keith Haney in this month\u2019s column photo, heating the slicks of his \u201cBlack Mamba\u201d Pro Mod Camaro during a qualifying pass at the Smackdown before the rains came.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since I\u2019m still the same energetic fan I\u2019ve always been, each time I visit a new track I\u2019m anxious to check out the view from the top row of the grandstands. Sure, I\u2019m tempted to just sit up there most of the day and watch run after run, but there\u2019s tons of other stuff I need attend to, so I have to limit my spectating adventures to just a few passes, or else half the day will be gone before I realize it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even though the mega-payout Pro Mod race didn\u2019t go exactly as planned, Flying H had a jam-packed roster of events in 2024. Their grand opening weekend kicked off on April 11-14, as local racers were able to get acquainted with this brand-new facility and surface. By early May, Flying H was ready for its first bracket points meet, which was scheduled on back-to-back days and was part of an eight-race points championship series. Other events in May included Street Car Takeover and Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings. The NHRA Lucas Oil Division 5 series met at Flying H in June and was a pretty huge gathering.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As I glanced over the full schedule, it was great to see such a diverse lineup of events to kick off their inaugural season. Everything from the Victory Nostalgia Super Stockers to small-tire shootouts and high-dollar bracket events. There\u2019s plenty of great stuff to enjoy at this track, and hopefully the weather will be stellar the next time I come this way. Flying H Drag Strip comes in at #166 on my ever-growing list of tracks I\u2019ve visited.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on December 27, 2024. ![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\")
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The post On the Road: Soaring to New Heights at Flying H Dragstrip<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s always thrilling to visit any dragstrip for the first time, especially a newly constructed facility that just opened less than a year ago! When I first heard rumblings online about a brand-new track called Flying H Drag Strip coming to Odessa, Missouri, I made it a point to look at their website for any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}