Central Florida Dragway/Orlando Speed World Dragway

History

An online source and newspapers agree that drag racing started here in 1966. The $200,000 track at Bithlo was owned and managed by Billy Herndon and opened on October 16, 1966 with 200 racers. The next week Hank McAleenan won top stock eliminator in his ‘65 Dodge at 11.61 and 131 mph, and Randy Peyton of Orlando upset Tommy Ivo in a match race with a best of 7.62 and 203 mph while Ivo fought a broken rear axle and wheelstands. Peyton came back on Thanksgiving Day and lost a match race to Val LaPorte, who set a track record of 7.5 and 221 mph.

In March 1967 NHRA pulled its sanction because the track didn’t meet sanctioning and safety rules. Herndon didn’t try to get it back, saying that if he met safety standards and carried the right insurance, he had no reason to be sanctioned by anyone. He backed off that and got AHRA sanction in December 1968. Earlier that year Don Garlits had set a track record of 7.06 and 219.50 mph against a field that included Art Malone, Chris Karamesines and Marvin Schwartz, and on October 27, 1968 he set a speed record of 223.32 mph winning the East Coast Fuel Dragster Championships. On December 15, 1968 the strip hosted AHRA’s Super Experimental Stock S/FX National Championships with the country’s top eight cars, including Don Nicholson, Larry Arnold, Malcolm Durham, Jim Liberman and Arnie Beswick. Beswick won and set a track record of 194.36 mph.

AHRA apparently didn’t suit Herndon, and he ran unsanctioned in 1969. That February his 1969 Winterchampionships, with more than $16,000 in prize money, drew racers from distant states. Doug Rose set a top speed record of 254.20 mph in his Green Mamba jet dragster, Shirl Greer won funny car over a 16-car field in his Dodge Charger and Arlen Vanke won Super Stock. Big events like this and yearly fuel dragster and funny car championships were what drew racers and fans. Later in 1969 and in 1970 Herndon ran events sanctioned by the United Drag Racers Association. He also toyed with rock festivals and championship boxing in 1969, but neither happened. Rain washed out the first two days of the 1970 Drag News Magazine Winternational Championships, so the racing was packed into January 4, 1970. Don Garlits, Shirl Greer and Sox & Martin won the pro categories, and Garlits set a track record of 6.82 and 229.07 mph in his final against Steve Carbone. In 1971 races were sponsored by the Florida Drag Racing Association. The track went back to AHRA in 1972, starting with the annual Florida Winter Championships, billed as a regional points meet, and that July it hosted the AHRA All America Funny Car Championships and the Dixie Dragster Championships. The AHRA Dixie Pro Stock Championships followed in May 1973. By 1991, and maybe earlier, it had become Orlando Speedworld Dragway. It now runs under NHRA sanction.