Amelia Earhart Field (Hialeah)

Drag races were held for three decades at this field at the north end of East 8th Avenue in Hialeah, and also at the larger Master Field airport next to it on the east side. One online source dates drag racing here to 1954, when the field apparently hosted the Florida State Championships, but newspapers clearly show it began in 1956. Navy officials first allowed drag racing on April 8, 1956, as a way to curb street racing. The Road Ramblers car club ran the races and Dade County police supervised. At the third race, on June 3, 1956, 5,500 people watched 135 racers, and Dick Addison had top speed at 101.12 mph in his Cadillac-powered ‘32 Ford roadster. Newspapers also called the November 10-11, 1956 meet here the first Florida state championship drag races, sponsored by the South Florida Timing Association under NHRA sanction, which also points to 1956. The state championships later moved to Daytona Beach and then, in 1959, to Buckingham Field. From 1959 to 1962 races ran on the first and third Sundays under NHRA sanction, and Ernie Schorb and Harry Steele of the Cabriolets car club were among those running them. Nothing remains of the airfield, which was bounded by East 65th Avenue on the north, the Little River Canal on the south, railroad tracks on the east and East 8th Avenue on the west.