Kissimmee Airfield

This U.S. Army airfield opened in 1940 and was the scene of some of Don Garlits’s early runs. In July 1955 the Orlando Timing Association got permission to use a taxi strip there, but only for members, since it didn’t have insurance to let the public watch. The Central Florida Timing Association (CFTA) held a race on November 27, 1955, where Dick Rolfing’s ‘33 Ford Victoria won its class and Charles Winslow had top speed on his Harley. Another race was set for December 11, so races seem to have been every two weeks by then, and in early 1956 they were monthly. In August 1956 the city council stopped racing until the CFTA incorporated and showed proper liability insurance. It did, and racing restarted on the first and third Sundays from about November 1956.

Garlits ran 134 mph on January 20, 1957 and 144.888 mph on February 3, then 136.364 mph on the first day of a two-day race February 9-10. On November 3, 1957 he set a Florida record with a 9.95 quarter and a personal best of 156.522 mph, and in December he ran 167 mph at the CFTA’s annual two-day Florida championships. In May 1958 he ran 9.87 at 163.53 mph at Kissimmee, which he called his favorite Florida track. That summer he made three straight runs under nine seconds here, the first time anyone in drag racing had broken nine seconds three times in a row. On December 7, 1958 he ran 174.75 mph in 8.78 seconds, then the fastest speed on an asphalt strip. The CFTA ran NHRA-sanctioned races on the first Sunday of each month in 1959 and on the first and third Sundays in 1960-61. Art Malone set a strip record of 178.398 mph on February 5, 1961 but blew his engine doing it. The city commission stopped racing at the airport in 1962.