IHRA: Track Profile - Immokalee Regional Raceway

The mission of Immokalee Regional Raceway is "To keep racing on the strip and off the street."

And for 18 years, that's what the all-concrete, eighth-mile strip east of Fort Myers and Naples, Florida has done.

And next season, it will be the first stop for the IHRA's new 2017 Summit Sportsman National Championship. The new national class racing program classes including Top Dragster, Top Sportsman, Super Stock, Stock, Quick Rod, Super Rod, Hot Rod and a class for Juniors. The Summit Sportsman National Championship will kick off in Immokalee in early February.

The track, which opened on April 17, 1999, has a strong draw from as far as Miami and Tampa, but the core of the participants are local. The raceway has strong support from sponsors that include Southeast Tomato Distributors, Performance Plumbing and Propane, Fillmore Machine, Lipman Family Farms, Action Automatic Door & Gate and 5 Day Plantation Shutters & Blinds.

The track's future was placed in jeopardy in 2011 when the Collier County Airport Authority, which runs the Immokalee Regional Airport where the track is located, threatened to double the monthly rent on the property, resulting in an outcry from not only racers and fans, but from members of the local government. Collier County Commissioner Jim Coletta, whose district includes Immokalee, said, "The racetrack has been a tremendous asset to the Immokalee community."

Fortunately, an agreement to keep the track in place was reached. "We've got a lease that we can live with," Hester said.

In 2000, an economic impact analysis was done in advance of a proposal on a large motorsports complex that would include an oval track and a two-mile road course. The two researchers – each a Ph.d. – wrote that: "Last year, drag racing began on an idle runway of the Immokalee Regional Airport.

The eighth-mile temporary drag strip has drawn crowds of more than 5,000 people and 300 dragsters from all over South Florida. It is reported that on weekends when the track is operational, the only hotel in Immokalee is completely booked.

One of the good things about its southern location is a long racing season – there's competition December 16 and 17, and picks back up again January 6 and 7.