The history of Immokalee Regional Raceway is a fascinating story of resilience, and while this IHRA-sanctioned eighth-miler in southwest Florida has indeed escaped closure on a number of occasions, it looks as though the end of the line is squarely in sight due to the neighboring airport\u2019s latest expansion plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: This column originally appeared in DI #198, the Photo Annual, in January\/February 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n Not only is the dragstrip situated on airport-owned land, but the track was also, in fact, once part of Immokalee Regional Airport, as the racing lanes were once runways for aircraft instead of hot rods. From the very beginning, the airport gave dragstrip founder Ralph Hester a 10-year lease on the property, with little expectation of it being extended, although Ralph somehow managed to turn a decade into a 27-year stint. \u201cI\u2019ve definitely outlived my stay,\u201d says Hester.\u00a0<\/p>\n A number of airport expansions through the years have made it difficult on the dragstrip, often putting the track\u2019s future in uncertain territory. Roughly five years ago, the airport launched an expansion plan that greatly encroached on the dragstrip, which included building a new taxiway for airplanes right across the staging lanes and starting line of the dragstrip, telling Hester the track would either have to be moved 330 feet down track or torn down entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ralph and his son, Thomas, weren\u2019t ready to throw in the towel just yet, so they dispensed many hours of sweat equity to move the track a mere 330 feet to accommodate the airport. In one regard, a move that short doesn\u2019t sound all that difficult, but the wiring alone was 22 years old at the time, and it all just crumbled when it was pulled out of the earth. Every part and piece of the dragstrip was uprooted and moved, much of it with great difficulty, including new concrete poured for the starting line and a host of other updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fast-forward four years and the airport\u2019s latest expansion plan involves the dragstrip completely ceasing to exist, and this time there\u2019s no more options to move it to make room. The airport\u2019s plan is to build brand-new hangers squarely where the racetrack is located, so they\u2019re telling Hester that his beloved dragstrip has got to go. \u201cHonestly, I\u2019m surprised we\u2019re still here,\u201d says Hester, during his New Year\u2019s race that ushered in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n The only reason the track lived to see another year was because the airport ran into some unexpected difficulty regarding the permits required to build the new hangers, so they told Ralph he could keep racing while they ironed things out. The hanger project actually got delayed twice, but Hester says he doesn\u2019t anticipate any more extensions, and it looks as though the dragstrip is on track to be permanently closed at the end of May 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a silver lining to these current events, it\u2019s the real possibility that Immokalee, Florida, may be getting a brand-new dragstrip! Hester tells me that he\u2019s gotten some massive sponsorship pledges from his current associates, and he\u2019s actively looking for land to build a new track. Ralph reminded me that the name Immokalee means \u201cmy home,\u201d and that\u2019s exactly how he feels about the place. \u201cImmokalee has been good to me, and I don\u2019t want to leave this town,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hester still works everyday selling produce for a living, and after work he and Thomas drive over to the track and work on dragstrip stuff. \u201cWhen we don\u2019t have a race going on we\u2019re miserable!\u201d he says. It\u2019s the people and friendships he\u2019s built over decades of being in the business that keeps him coming back. \u201cThe finest people in the world can be met at the dragstrip,\u201d he\u2019s told me on more than one occasion.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve probably visited Immokalee Regional Raceway a dozen times since my first trip 14 years ago, when I came here for the season-opening IHRA Pro-Am race. Many racers I\u2019ve chatted with find the whole \u201cImmokalee experience\u201d to be a magnificent way to escape the bitter cold of winter. I\u2019ve even met a group of racers who traveled 32 hours from Nova Scotia to race at Immokalee.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to imagine this place without its familiar dragstrip, operated by such a hospitable soul as Ralph Hester. So, if the curtain is indeed about to close on this final act, we\u2019re all rooting for Ralph to find his new land, and keep the good times rolling for as long as fate will allow.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The post On The Road: Immokalee Regional Raceway<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The history of Immokalee Regional Raceway is a fascinating story of resilience, and while this IHRA-sanctioned eighth-miler in southwest Florida has indeed escaped closure on a number of occasions, it looks as though the end of the line is squarely in sight due to the neighboring airport\u2019s latest expansion plans.\u00a0 Editor\u2019s Note: This column originally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}