Drag strip gets green light in Nassau County

NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — Drag racers will have a new place to compete in Northeast Florida. The town of Callahan is getting its first drag racing track. Action New Jax spoke with the Callahan man who’s making this all happen.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

You may have heard the sound of burning rubber on streets and highways. It’s most likely people trying to push their car’s horsepower to the limit, but it’s not street-legal.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

“There’s nowhere you can legally do anything with horsepower,” Callahan Businessman, David Hicken said.

David Hicken is the owner of a go-kart track complex called Speedway in Callahan in Nassau County. He had been waiting for three years to bring a drag racetrack. Now, it’s finally coming.

“We’re going to be breaking ground hopefully in a week or so,” Hicken said. “It should only take about five or six months to get open.”

Read: Woman arrested after injuring two near Castillo de San Marcos in DUI crash

Hicken gave us a personal tour of an 8-mile drag racetrack that will be built behind Hicken’s go-kart complex.

“It’s going to be a 50-foot-wide two-lane drag strip,” Hicken said. “It’s going to have jersey walls, which are concrete barriers. It’s going to have a concrete burning area and a concrete starting line.”

This project will cost nearly $1 million. Hicken says it’s going to be worth every penny to see people do wheelies, burnouts, and donuts.

“It is the only place you can legally put your foot to the metal, I guess you can say,” Hicken said.

Currently, the next closest drag track is the National Hot Rod Association in Gainesville.

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Hicken said this nearly $1 million project is expected to be completed in six months of this year.

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.