Valkaria Dragway (Port Malabar)

Valkaria Airfield was nine miles south of Melbourne. On August 14, 1960, racers from three counties put on an exhibition to improve drag racing’s public image and change the Brevard County Commission’s mind about racing at the old field, and it worked. The Shifters Hot Rod Club held a race on September 30, 1960, and the commission gave its approval in November 1961. Motor Sports, Inc. ran the first official race on January 28, 1962, and raced every other Sunday that year.

The seventh annual Florida State Drag Racing Championships moved there from Master Field in 1962. The Melbourne Jaycees held what was billed as the first annual Southeast Championships on September 22, 1963, with $1,500 in prize money and trophies for every class winner. A race on July 17, 1964, offered $5,000 and drew racers from thirteen states. On September 18, 1966, the second annual Dixie Drag Festival at what newspapers called Valkaria Raceway featured Walt Stevens in the Piranha funny car. Old-timers remembered Tommy Ivo, Don Garlits and George Montgomery racing there.

Racing stopped in August 1967 after a 19-year-old man was killed by an oncoming race car, and county commissioners passed a law against further racing. The Melbourne Jaycees signed a lease in 1968 and hoped to reopen by July 1969, but contract trouble and other setbacks kept dragging on, and the strip never reopened.