Orlando Speed World Dragway may be gone

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G

Guitar Jones

aka Angry Johnny
Joined
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Deltona, Florida
I know there are some Central Florida members here so I'm posting this to let you know what I've heard.

Track operator Carl Weisinger who holds the lease through 2013 is going to be giving it up at the end of this year. I'm not going to speculate on why there are plenty of rumours out there and I don't know the real story about that. But, what I've heard is Carl owns all the track equipment including the timing equipment and he wants to sell it. He does not want to lease it, so it's going to take someone with a lot of money or their own equipment to come in there. I know the Hart family owns the property and they operate the circle track there which is not doing very good at all.

The bad part is that all that property has been rezoned residential but the track is grandfathered in. If they hold just one race a year it will keep it's grandfathered status but if they don't it reverts to residential and the track will be done.

This info was current as of last weekend. I can't say who gave me this info and I won't but suffice to say it is someone that knows. If anyone else has any other news, please let us know. Orange county has already shut down CFRC the 1/8 mile IHRA track here so it's not looking good. Lakeland, St. Pete, Gainsville, West Palm and Bradenton are all that's left to my knowledge. The three 1/4 mile tracks are at least a 3+ hour drive for me. Lakeland isn't a bad drive but I'm not fond of the rather short shutdown area or the metal guard rails there.

I tried to register on the bullet to post this info but it keeps telling me that the administrator has disabled registration. I thought I had an account there but can't remember what user name or email account I used. I don't think I've ever posted there. I have also posted this on Moparts.
 
Is there anyway,a sanctioning body(N.M.C.A,P.S.C.A,type)locally,to run a minor race series? Used to watch the World Nats years ago,loved watching the Swedes.
 
Man that sucks GJ. I know what it's like to loose my home track as mine, gateway international, shut down 2 yrs. ago but thankfully someone else came in and reopened it this year. I wish you the best that things get resolved.
 
From what got posted on classracer sounds like it may be over.
 
The old sunshine speedway has reopened as showtime speedway the circle track is now open again and i heard they were redoing [paving/concrete] the drag strip to open this week. I'm not a drag racer we were involved with circle track [mini stocks] there many many years ago,i remember when the strip was 1/4 mile but was cut to 1/8 mile due to short shutdown end. I personally would not bother running a drag car at an 1/8 mile track [unless it was the only one around] just seems like a waste of time and money [J.M.O.].
 
lou3500 said:
I personally would not bother running a drag car at an 1/8 mile track [unless it was the only one around] just seems like a waste of time and money [J.M.O.].
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I bet if you drag raced, you would change your mind, I thought the same way until I bought a car and started bracket racing. I soon found out that the 1/8th mile racing is much closer at the finish, and more of a challenge IMO. 1/4 mile is fun every once in a while, but it sure does beat up Parts Faster!

Its a shame about Orlando, but i'm not surprised. I went to the Night Of Fire/ World Street Nationals last year, and there were very few cars there, in fact I think we get more cars for the Bracket program at Bradenton! Not sure if that was representative of the every week turn out or not. I heard rumors that Ozzy, who operates both CFRC and Lakeland might be interested in Orlando, but that is just pure speculation.
 
This is "cut & paste" from Carl over at class racer dot com.

First of all I want to give a giant "thank you" to everyone that has supported the operation of Orlando Speed World Dragway during the last 25 years.

Because of confidentiality agreements I just can't comment or speculate on the future of the Orlando Speed World property other than to say, at this time, there are no drag strip events on the schedule beyond December of 2012. And, I don't know of any firm offers to buy the property.

There are a few things I can tell you. I personally plan to retire from the active drag strip operation of Orlando Speed World Dragway at the end of 2012.

I am not, nor do I expect to be, the owner or part owner of Lakeland Drag Strip.

While I may go to our home in Oregon for extended periods of time next year, I have no intention of returning there to operate the drag strip at the Jackson County Sports Park.

There is no "serious rift" between myself and the Hart family (owners of Orlando Speed
World and New Smyrna Speedway). They wouldn't own the Speed World property today
if it weren't for me and I wouldn't have had the opportunity to operate Orlando Speed World Dragway for the last 25 years if it weren't for them.


Best to all of you,

Carl Weisinger

PS. I'd love to see any old pictures you may have taken at Central Florida Dragway/Orlando Speed World Dragway between 1966 and 1985.
 
I didn't know CFRC was closed? I've never been there, but I heard the shut down was real short, even worse than Lakeland.
 
70Dart499 said:
I didn't know CFRC was closed? I've never been there, but I heard the shut down was real short, even worse than Lakeland.
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Yea, they had some kind of meeting and closed it, I believe due to noise. But it's suppose to be in the middle of an industrial park! I've never been there either but have gone to Lakeland. Lots of history at that track and the guy running it is trying hard to bring it gack to being a decent place.
 
Locomotion said:
Yea, they had some kind of meeting and closed it, I believe due to noise. But it's suppose to be in the middle of an industrial park! I've never been there either but have gone to Lakeland. Lots of history at that track and the guy running it is trying hard to bring it gack to being a decent place.
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walmart or one of the big shopping places bought it, it's gone for good I heard through the grapevine
 
Quicktree said:
walmart or one of the big shopping places bought it, it's gone for good I heard through the grapevine
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The Walmart rumor is still just that, a rumor. It's popped up a time or two over the last couple of years. Someone on another forum said someone close to the track said that it is expected to run at least next year. A few other rumors around as well. Carl seems to be keeping the details a secret, probably out of necessity. I think it's one of those things we'll know for sure when there's an "official" announcement from someone involved with the track property now or in the future.
 
Locomotion said:
Yea, they had some kind of meeting and closed it, I believe due to noise. But it's suppose to be in the middle of an industrial park! I've never been there either but have gone to Lakeland. Lots of history at that track and the guy running it is trying hard to bring it gack to being a decent place.
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OK, I didn't know that, i've been to Lakeland a time or two, and I like some of the changes that have been made, but I prefer running down at Bradenton, its much more organized than Lakeland, and they start a little earlier so your not running first round at 9:30PM
 
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