Immokalee Regional Raceway
 

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[h=2]Immokalee Regional Raceway[/h] Steven Cole Smith / Image courtesy IHRA

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.

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[h=2]IHRA Promoter Profile: Ralph Hester, Immokalee Regional Raceway[/h] By Steven Cole Smith (words & image)
Two completely unrelated events happened a short time apart that resulted in the creation of Immokalee Regional Raceway, the South Florida drag strip that hosted the first 2017 IHRA Summit Sportsman National Championship race this season.
First, Immokalee businessman Ralph Hester overheard some police officers from nearby Cape Coral talking about the very dangerous increase in illegal street drag racing that was taking place – and about how there was no legal place to race nearby.
And second, Hester happened to be flying out of the Immokalee Regional Airport, which used to be Immokalee Army Airfield, used for B-17 and B-24 bomber training. Once aloft, "I noticed they were painting a big 'X' on each end of one of the runways," Hester said.
When he got back, he asked what was going on: Turns out the airport didn't need, and didn't want to maintain, that particular runway, and they were closing it down.
Hester thought that runway might make a pretty good eighth-mile drag strip. He was correct. Immokalee Regional Raceway opened on April 17, 1999.
It isn't as though Hester had much in the way of drag racing experience. A North Carolina native, he sponsored a NASCAR entry in the lower levels, but was never directly involved in drag racing. In Immokalee, he has a produce and trucking business, and he tried to run the drag strip in his spare time. Finally he brought his son, Thomas, to Immokalee to manage the facility, and together they've created one of the nicest, most family-friendly tracks in the country.
Unlike some track promoters, Hester is easy to find on race day, either touring the track on his golf cart or visiting with the racers. "If there's a problem, I want to hear about it," he said.
Of course, as any promoter will tell you, it isn't always easy. Hester almost had to close the strip in 2011 when the airport, which owns the property and was renting it to Hester on a month-by-month basis, threatened to more than double the rent per a directive from the FAA.
Given the fact that Hester spent his own money on the track and the facilities, it would have been a blow not only to him but to the racing community. Local officials came to his defense: Collier County Commissioner Jim Coletta, whose district included Immokalee, said at the time the racetrack "has been a tremendous asset to the Immokalee community."
Fortunately, an agreement Hester could live with was reached, and the Immokalee Regional Raceway is as strong as ever, with a schedule that includes racing on various Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
"I like what the IHRA is doing," Hester says. "I go way back with them, and it's been a good partnership."