Original Message

Joe - The drag racing you mentioned was at the DeLand airport on Highway 92 on the north side of DeLand. This was ideal because it had a long runway originally used during WWII for pilot training. My uncle was in pilot school there back in the 40s. They drag raced cars (until 1967) and motorcycles (were still going on in 2009). During the time it was used, the airport was servicing mostly small planes and skydivers making it easy to fit in the racing. Deltona is actually 10+ miles south of DeLand along I4. Also the Spruce Creek Fly-In airport hosted NASCAR/NHRA dual sanctioned events in Feb 1963, then NASCAR (headed by Ed Otto) promoted drags on the backstretch at Daytona International Speedway before they moved it over to the DeLand Airport. This link shows all of the sites in Florida used for drag racing: Florida Drag Strip History (dragstriplist.com)