Palm Beach International Raceway (Jupiter)

This $1.5 million complex near Jupiter had a 2-mile road course, a kart track and a concrete drag strip. Father and son Ed and Joe Buchek developed it, and at first several car clubs, joined as the Gulf Coast Timing Association, ran it. The drag strip’s exact opening date isn’t known, but the first big race was the two-day Big Go East, set for February 6-7, 1965 and, according to one newspaper, sanctioned by AHRA. Rain washed it out, and the makeup date of February 20-21 was rained out too. It finally ran February 27-28 with a much thinner field. Paul Shapiro won top eliminator at 8.71 in his rear-engined dragster, and Bob Hamilton of Tampa had top speed at 178.21 mph. Another race followed April 11, 1965, and on May 8 or 9 Don Chason was fastest in his AA/FD at 8.812 and 173 mph. On Saturday night, July 9, 1966, the Ballentine Brothers of Fort Myers made the night’s fastest run at 140.81 mph.

Facing foreclosure in 1968, the Bucheks sold the track to attorneys Amos and Michael Jackson and used car salesman Dave Rupp. Jack Crozier, who drove Ollie Olsen’s Willys, was the announcer under Rupp. One of the first major events was the three-day AHRA Grand American Series of Professional Drag Racing Championships on April 16-18, 1971, with nearly $100,000 in cash and contingency money. Almost forty top fuel drivers came, including Don Garlits, Steve Carbone, Chris Karamesines, Jim Nicoll, Bill Tidwell, John Wiebe, Jimmy King and Don Cook. The track changed hands in 1981 and became Moroso Motorsports Park, and its Super Chevy Show events were very popular in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2008 a group of local enthusiasts bought it, restored the original name, greatly improved the track surface and ran it under IHRA sanction. In 2021 it was bought for commercial use of the land. The last race was April 23, 2022, and the track closed for good.