The Fulford-Miami Speedway

By Sigur Whitaker.
 
In 1925, Carl Fisher was busy developing and promoting Miami Beach. It was at the peak of the Roaring Twenties development in south Florida. Miami Beach had 56 hotels with 4,000 rooms, 178 apartment buildings, and 858 private residences. Some of the wealthy residents included Harvey Firestone, J. C. Penney, Harry Stutz, Albert Champion (spark plugs), Frank Seiberling (Goodyear Tire & Rubber), John Oliver LaGorce (National Geographic), Roy Chapin (Hudson Motor Company), Alfred DuPont, R J. Reynolds, and William Randolph Hearst.
 
To provide activities during the “season”, Miami Beach had eight bathing casinos, four polo fields and three golf courses. Carl Fisher hit upon another idea. Why not build a board track for auto racing?
 
One of the advantages of building a board track was that it was comparatively inexpensive. The one-mile Los Angeles Motordrome, the first board track for motor racing, cost $75,000 when it was constructed in 1910. As a comparison, the owners of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway spent $700,000 to resurface the track in 1909.
 
Fisher hired the 1911 Indianapolis 500 winner Ray Harroun not only to build the track but to serve as the general manager. A one and one-quarter mile board track was built adjacent to the Fulford-By-The-Sea real estate development. It was the first speedway built in South Florida. With banking of 50 degrees, the cars had to drive at a speed of 110 mph to stay on the track. If they went slower, they would slide to the infield. There was also the possibility of a car flying off the top of the track. The Fulford-Miami Speedway was considered the fastest in the world. For comparison, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway turns are banked at 9 degrees while those at Daytona Motor Speedway are banked at 31 degrees.
 
The Carl G. Fisher Trophy Race, a 300-mile event sanctioned by the AAA, was held on February 22, 1926, with an estimated 20,000 in attendance and a purse of $30,000. The event had 18 entrants and was a contest between the Duesenberg teams with four entrants and the Miller teams with 14 entrants. When Barney Oldfield waved the starting flag, the cars were led by Tommy Milton piloting a Duesenberg, who took the pole with a qualifying speed of 142.93 mph.  The race was won by Peter DePaolo with an average speed of 129.295 mph. It was De Paolo’s sixth victory in his racing career. Only six cars went the entire 300 miles with another three still running when the race was called. Milton went out of the race on lap 43 with an engine failure.
 
On September 19, 1926, Miami Beach was struck by a category 4 hurricane with top speeds of 149 mph devastating the resort. Nearly 400 people died. Telephone and electricity were knocked out. The hurricane crossed the state of Florida and made landfall in Alabama and a day later in Mississippi. It was the costliest hurricane ($100 million in 1926) to the United States adjusted for wealth normalization. It is estimated that had the hurricane hit in 2018, the cost would have been $236 billion. The second costliest hurricane adjusted for wealth normalization was the 1900 hurricane which hit Galveston, Texas with a 2018 cost estimate of $139 billion. Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans in 2005 had a 2018 adjusted cost of $117 billion.
 
Fisher, who was making significant investments in his Montauk, Long Island, resort returned to Miami Beach and started the rebuilding of the resort. Unfortunately for Fisher, the hurricane killed the real estate boom and he never recovered financially.
 
The racetrack was not rebuilt. The lumber was salvaged and was used in the rebuilding of the area which is now part of North Miami Beach. Major league auto racing did not return to South Florida until 1983 when Ralph Sanchez organized the Grand Prix of Miami.
 
Note: First Super Speedway has a gallery of images of the Fulford-Miami Speedway.
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