In the 1920s, board track speedways were still very much in vogue, even though auto racing and motorcycle racing on those heavily banked board tracks was incredibly dangerous, and accidents were frequent and often fatal. Seatbelts were not in use then, brakes were rudimentary, and safety was an afterthought at best. By 1925, Carl G. Fisher, the developer of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (known as the Brickyard due to its surface being paved with bricks), had established the popular Indianapolis 500 race run annually since 1911, and was developing the town of Miami Beach as a vacation destination.
One of his projects was the building of the first and only board speedway in South Florida. He hired Ray Harroun, the winner of the 1911 Indy 500 race, to design what was called the Fulford-Miami Speedway in Fulford-By-The-Sea, which was later to become North Miami Beach.
The result was a 1.25-mile board track with 50-degree banking in the corners, allowing for amazing speeds of the era, and as such, it was billed as the fastest speedway in the world. The first and, as it turned out, the only AAA sanctioned race (the AAA sanction reflected top tier of auto racing at the time) was named the Carl G. Fisher Cup Race in honor of the track’s visionary builder and was held on February 22, 1926. It was a 300-mile event held in front of 20,000 people. Out of 18 starters only six cars were running at the finish. The eventual winner was Peter De Paolo, the 1925 winner of the Indy 500. Sadly, later that year on September 17, the track was destroyed during the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 and was not rebuilt.
