Bradenton Motorsports Park
ActiveActive Still racing today.
Also known as DeSoto Memorial Dragway
NHRA quarter-mile on State Road 64 east of Bradenton, the former DeSoto Memorial Dragway. Its winter calendar of big-money and heads-up races, led by the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals and the Cold War Series, makes it a major off-season destination. Victor Alvarez has owned it since 2018, and Garrett Mitchell, better known as Cleetus McFarland, bought a half share in December 2024. Mitchell also owns the oval next door, the old DeSoto Speedway, now called the Freedom Factory.
- Long-running home of the IHRA Snowbird Nationals
- Raced
- 1971-present
- State
- Florida
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- 1971
- Sanction
- NHRA Division 2
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Address
- 21000 SR 64
Bradenton, FL 34212 - People
- Stanley Swartz, builder and owner (1971-84)
- Gene Tharp, builder and owner (1971-84)
- Art Malone, owner (from 1984)
- Alan Chervitz, owner (2000-18)
- Victor Alvarez, owner (2018-)
- Garrett Mitchell (Cleetus McFarland), half owner (December 20, 2024-)
- Elevation
- 72 ft (22 m)
- Coordinates
- 27.46935, -82.32786
Big races
Snowbird Outlaw Nationals
Long-running winter race now in its 55th year, drawing northern racers south; the 2026 edition included a jet car night of fire.
U.S. Street Nationals
Cold War Series event that brings radial, Pro Mod and street car classes to Bradenton in midwinter.
Sick Week
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
History
When the track opened in 1971 it began hosting the IHRA Snowbird Nationals, a winter race that has continued for decades. Stanley Swartz and Gene Tharp built it and owned it until 1984, when they sold the drag strip to Art Malone and kept the oval next door. The track’s only driver fatality, dated to 1966, was Rick Metts, killed while testing his Plymouth Duster Pro Stock car. Crew chief Herb Parks was killed in 1988 in a freak accident when his top fuel car backed over him at the starting line. Around 2001 it was renamed Bradenton Motorsports Park, and it has run under NHRA sanction since 2017.
Video
More in Florida
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