This Is The Atlanta Dragway A Year Later

In the year since it last conducted competitive drag racing, much of the Atlanta Dragway surface and structures in Commerce, Georgia have yet to be cleared by its new owner, South Korea-based automotive battery manufacturer SK Innovations, but Mother Nature is gradually doing her part to reclaim the land.

Kim Williams Smith, wife of Super Gas racer Thomas Smith, recently gained access to the ghost that is now the Atlanta Dragway, their hometrack in the Southeast division and a facility they frequented for a numbers of years, and snapped some photos illustrating its condition a year on. SK’s plans for the 318-acre site sold to them by the National Hot Rod Association have reportedly included everything from additional manufacturing space of its own, to supplier manufacturing facilities, to warehouses, and even housing for employees of its nearby $2.6 billion plant. Other photographers documenting the facility since its closure last October have shown some evidence of dismantling, but to date, no new construction or land development has taken place, and the dragway is still largely intact. Gone are the aluminum bleachers, and various outbuildings have either been torn down or stripped down for demolition. The most visible structure, the three-story timing tower, still sits just as it did, but like everything else, is surrounded by overgrowth.