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Ocala Speedway's takes gamble on surface switch |
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By Joe VanHoose on
2/29/2008 7:42 AM
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You can feel the optimism and octane in the air as Ocala Speedway opens up for the 2008 season tonight. It's an optimism that hasn't been around the 3/8-mile oval for quite some time.
Ocala Speedway isn't just another small town bullring. The track happens to be the oldest in the state, even older than Daytona. If that doesn't give the place a little prestige, the track owners want to make sure it gets a little more.
The short track racing industry is a dying one, and it's been dying for some time. Cars are expensive to build and maintain, fuel and tire costs are high, and track insurance rates have skyrocketed. The general trend for any track in Florida is for both car and fan counts to go down.
That trend will be bucked tonight at Ocala Speedway, but only because track owners Mike Peters and Angie Clifton challenged the status quo. The two decided to put 350 truckloads of dirt onto the asphalt track in h ...
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A look back at Daytona |
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By Joe VanHoose on
2/21/2008 9:21 AM
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Was anybody else surprised about who won the 50th Daytona 500? Better question: did you wake up last Sunday thinking that Ryan Newman would win the Great American Race?
I didn't. Unless you're a big Newman fan, you didn't either.
Last Saturday when I was writing about each driver in the 500 field, I wrote this little gem:
"Ryan Newman. Why he can win: Showed strength on Thursday (in the qualifying races). Why he can't win: Not enough friends at the front."
On the last lap, Newman didn't need a lot of friends. He had the only one that mattered -- his teammate Kurt Busch -- giving him a "push from heaven" to get by Tony Stewart to take the win.
Forget that Kyle Busch led almost half the race and had the dominant car. Forget that Stewart was in perfec ...
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Plenty of storylines at Daytona this week |
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By Joe VanHoose on
2/8/2008 1:14 PM
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DAYTONA BEACH – NASCAR is back at the beach this week, but the feeling in the Florida air is a little different.
What’s different? Plenty.
For one, the stars of NASCAR will race the 50th annual Daytona 500 next Sunday. The occasion has brought all of the race’s former winners – names like Petty, Pearson, Foyt and Allison – back to the World Center of Racing. It’s hard to walk through the paddock and not see a living racing legend.
Secondly, this is the first Speedweeks featuring NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow. If last year’s race at Talladega is any indication of what the racing this week will be like, there might not be much to watch.
But race teams have had all winter to tweak these race cars for this race. I bet the racing will be just fine.
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Speedweeks begin this week |
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By Joe VanHoose on
2/1/2008 8:25 AM
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NASCAR fans who call themselves race fans think that Speedweeks starts in Daytona with the Bud Shootout and Daytona 500. That's fine.
But race fans know Speedweeks and the racing season starts tonight and in the coming week, not in Daytona but at a few local tracks across the state.
This year, North Florida Speedway starts off Speedweeks tonight and tomorrow with the biggest of dirt track draws: the 410 sprint cars of the All Stars Circuit of Champions series. They'll join forces with the UMP Modifieds for a two-day show at the Lake City track before heading off to Volusia Raceway Park and East Bay Raceway.
If you've never seen sprint cars race on dirt, do yourself a favor and go. These 750-horsepower hot rods sling around these dirt tracks faster than any other short track car. There is truly no other show quite like them, and this one-of-a-kind show visits North Florida Speedway for the first time this wee ...
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The first rear-engine dragster, really |
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By Joe VanHoose on
11/26/2007 9:57 AM
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Back in August I sat down with “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and toured his museum. Inside his museum sits what is considered the “First Successful Rear-Engine Dragster,” the Swamp Rat built in 1971.
After running the story, I received an e-mail claiming that this car was not the first successful rear-engine dragster. The same man who wrote me the day after the story published just sent me a packet with the real first successful rear-engine dragster, the 1963 Israeli Rocket built by Leroy Goldstein.
This car was built from the ground up and ran on a gasoline-powered Oldsmobile engine. It had no rear wing but did incorporate rack and pinion steering, aircraft front wheels and spherical rod ends to make the car handle better. The car ran the quarter-mile in about eight seconds, topping out around 170 m.p.h.
Impressive, indeed, but it didn’t change the ...
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Wrapping up a long racing season |
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By Joe VanHoose on
11/21/2007 3:23 PM
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The NASCAR season is over, and I am tired. So are a lot of you, according to the e-mails and calls I received about why you aren't watching the races anymore. Here are some reasons:
• "My main complaint is on the number of ads shown, particularly during green flag racing. NASCAR is getting so greedy even their own ads are being displayed while active racing is underway." Dick Wolfe, Ocala
• "It's just gotten a little boring, and the TV coverage is horrible. It's gotten to the point now that I listen on the radio if I listen at all." Anne Hamilton, Ocala
• "There's just too much talking on TV. Everything one person says, another one repeats. I don't care if I ever watch it on TV again." Harold Frederick, Ocala
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The senior tour for stock car drivers |
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By Joe VanHoose on
11/8/2007 3:12 PM
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This is the coolest idea I've ever seen for a race series. I present to you the Old School Racing Champions Tour, which starts its 12-race schedule in May.
Gene and Norm Weaver's brainchild will put old-time stock car drivers in identically prepared cars, just like the defunct IROC series. They'll race at short tracks all over the Southeast, including a stop at New Smyrna Speedway in February 2009.
Check out some of the names that will race in this series: David Pearson, Jack Ingram, Harry Gant, Geoff Bodine, Dave Marcis, Phil Parsons, Derrike Cope and Andy Hillenburg. It's like a dream team of old NASCAR stars mixed in with a few who weren't worth too much to begin with.
As hyped as I am to see Pearson, who in my opinion is the best stock car driver of all time, I have some doubt as to whether this series will ever take a green flag. Fo ...
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The 12 Hours of Ocala: Coffee please |
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By Joe VanHoose on
10/18/2007 12:22 PM
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Endurance races today are reserved for the elite in motorsports. Englishmen and Germans wheel their Porsches, Audis and Ferraris around world-famous circuits like Le Mans, Daytona, Sebring and Road America.
These are races against the clock, races where teams of 20 or so plan out every little move and detail to stay competitive.
Then there's the 12 Hours of Ocala, a kind of race that you won't see anywhere else. European sports cars will be replaced by Camaros and Monte Carlos as some of Florida's most dedicated short track drivers take to the 3/8-mile Ocala Speedway for 12 hours of non-stop racing.
Yes, 12 hours of quick left turns on a small egg-shaped oval. Get out the coffee.
The race celebrates its second year Saturday, starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m. Upward of 30 cars are expected to compete in the event, ...
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North Wilkesboro Speedway revival plans back on track |
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By Joe VanHoose on
9/28/2007 7:42 AM
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This weekend 11 years ago, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series visited North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for the last time. The then 50-year-old track was sold to other racetrack owners, who mothballed the facility after the 1996 racing season.
Time has stood still at North Wilkesboro Speedway since that chilly September day. Banners still hang and tables are still set, and the track office is still filled with old ticket stubs and brochures. It's like the world locked the door to the track behind them that evening, and tomorrow never came.
But rebirth for the speedway could be right around the corner if a land developer gets his way. Worth Mitchell, 33, says he's got a plan in place to buy the track within six months. After talking quietly for seven months with the track's realtor, Andy Stancil, Mitchell stands ready to revive the 61-year-old track.
"This isn't the biggest deal ...
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Your Florida Dream Track |
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By Joe VanHoose on
9/10/2007 9:26 AM
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The local racing season is just a few months from wrapping up, and track owners across the state already have their minds on 2008. Scheduling eight months of non-stop racing is no easy task, not to mention putting together rulebooks and figuring out what classes to run.
That being said, let's set up a little hypothetical situation. You, the race fan, are starting up a local racetrack for next year. What's it going to look like? Will it be dirt or asphalt? What classes will run there? How much will it cost to get in? Will you run qualifying sessions or heat races or just features? What kind of special events would you like to have?
Keep in mind that your budget for all this is modest, so you can't have a NASCAR race.
After spending a year talking to local race fans, I know you have opinions and think that you could put a winning program together if you h ...
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