Sebring Airstrip

Don Garlits said he ran several drag races at the Sebring airstrip around 1956. Newspapers suggest racing may have started in 1957, though it could have been 1956 as he remembered. In May 1957 the Triangle Timing Association signed on as co-sponsor of what newspapers called a new strip at Sebring. A three-day NHRA meet, the Southeastern Championships, ran June 21-23, 1957, sponsored by the South Florida Timing Association and the Sebring Firemen, with about 100 racers from seven states. Ora Cook won top eliminator in his Chrysler-powered B dragster at 11.03 and 121.25 mph. The second seven-state NHRA regional, June 20-22, 1958, was spoiled by rain, and the final eliminations moved to Amelia Earhart Field in Miami on June 29. At the third annual Southeastern Championships, May 29-31, 1959, Garlits won top eliminator at 9.931 and 152.28 mph over Ed Pantley of Tampa and took the Bill Frazier Trophy, named for a Sebring dragster driver killed two weeks earlier at Golden Triangle. At the May 28-30, 1960 Southeastern Regionals, the Saturday and Sunday races ran at night under lights for the first time. Ollie Olsen had top speed at 151 mph, but Lewis Carden won top eliminator in his B dragster and set a national record of 9.378 and 143.887 mph. That made four straight years (1957-60) of NHRA regionals at Sebring. The old World War II Army airfield had hosted a road course since its first sports car race in 1950.

In August 1991 the Central Florida Performance Association (CFPA) brought drag racing back to Sebring, but it started badly when lighting equipment failed and 3,000 people had to get refunds. After a year of sorting things out, the CFPA held its next race on July 25, 1992 and began a weekly IHRA-sanctioned program that ran through 1997. Drag races were held often at Sebring International Raceway in 2016.