The Amelia Celebrates NHRA Gainesville Raceway's 50Th Anniversary & The 50Th Annual Gatornationals

January 17, 2019 by The Amelia Concours

SALUTING FLORIDA'S FASTEST RACE TRACK

Jacksonville, FL - Gainesville Raceway celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019. Like another famous Florida landmark, Cape Canaveral, Gainesville Raceway is a portal to other realms.

Gainesville Raceway is the launching pad of record speeds and of drag racing's 'holy grail', the first 300 mph quarter-mile run.

NHRA (National Hot Rod Assn.) Drag Racing at top levels is part motorsport and part rocket science. Top Fuel dragsters are the fastest accelerating manned vehicles on Earth and generate more speed quicker than any other machine piloted by humans. They create greater G-forces starting (and stopping) than carrier-launched aircraft or even a rocket lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center. NHRA's top fuel classes generate more power than a locomotive and shake the earth with measurable seismic tremors.

'Top Fuel Dragsters are the most powerful race cars on the planet. They accelerate from zero-to-100 mph in less than a second,' said Don Robertson, former Gainesville Raceway track manager who is now an organizer of The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance's Cars & Coffee at the Concours. 'It's a horizontal space shot with forces beyond the comprehension of most people. Dragsters have the most extreme and exotic physics in motorsport.'

In March 1992 Kenny Bernstein drove his Budweiser King Top Fuel dragster through a speed barrier at Gainesville Raceway some thought unreachable.

But the pros knew better. All the NHRA's marquee names were obsessed with being the first to break the 300 mph barrier. 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits, Kenny Bernstein, Tony Schumacher and Eddie Hill all understood the time was near.

Bernstein's crew chief Dale Armstrong went so far as asking Kenny how much he weighed. When Bernstein replied '160', Armstrong told him to lose ten pounds for a better chance to breach 300 mph barrier first!

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Florida is atmospherically generous to drag racers. Gainesville Raceway is just 137.8 feet above sea level and its oxygen content makes that rich air an especially valuable ingredient for the NHRA fuel classes.

It happened in second-round qualifying when Bernstein pulled the trigger on over 7,000 horsepower in his Budweiser King Top Fueler. In just 4.82 seconds and 1320 feet history was made and Gainesville Raceway's grandstands erupted.

'That day the 300 mph barrier was broken,' said Robertson. 'Right here in Gainesville.'

It was drag racing's version of the first moon landing. It was also a media bonanza for the NHRA, Bernstein and his sponsors. Plus it was yet another Gainesville Raceway speed record further burnishing the Florida track's reputation as a 'records factory'.

'The first 260 and 270 mph runs also came at Gainesville Raceway,' said Robertson. 'Speed is the soul of motorsport; more reasons that Gainesville Raceway is sacred ground to drag racers.

'In just a week you can attend The Amelia and, the next day, drive to Ocala, visit the Don Garlits Museum and then go to the NHRA GatorNationals at Gainesville Raceway,' said Robertson. 'That's true sensory overload and the perfect 'car guy' holiday . . . all without leaving north Florida.'

About The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance

THE AMELIA will be held March 7-10, 2019 at The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island and The Golf Club of Amelia Island. For the Amelia's full events schedule, including Saturday's Cars & Coffee at the Concours and Sunday's premier Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, visit www.ameliaconcours.org. The show's Foundation has donated over $3.45 million to Community Hospice & Palliative Care and other charities on Florida's First Coast since its inception in 1996.