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Dirt track racing may be the answer
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Location: Blogs Running Wide Open |
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| Posted by: Joe VanHoose |
5/3/2007 2:18 PM |
I have to admit, I was unfaithful last weekend. Friday evening at my usual stomping grounds, I was nowhere to be found. Saturday came and went, and I was still missing.
That’s because I was cheating on Ocala Speedway, cheating on racing in central Florida, cheating on my asphalt-racing brethren.
Where was I? Tampa, south Tampa to be exact. I took in an evening show at East Bay Raceway Park, watched cars slide around on clay and dirt for four hours, and came away with no shame at all.
If you’ve never been to East Bay and you enjoy local racing, you may want to check this place out. Never have I seen more cars on the track or a tighter show in this state. Never have I seen so many fans pack an old wooden grandstand for a standard night of racing. And never have I ever seen so much overall passion spilled over the local drivers racing that night.
The track hides way off U.S. 41 entrenched in an industrial park. A landfill serves as a mountainous backdrop, hundreds of feet tall, which gave the impression that I was somewhere in western Carolina, not southern Florida.
The grandstand stretched down the front straightaway and into turn one, not to mention rising 15 rows high, but finding a good seat proved to be difficult; however, I found one near the top, right underneath a couple skyboxes near the start-finish line.
It’s rare to see luxury boxes at a racetrack this size, but that’s not all East Bay has going for it. The track has a full-service restaurant just outside turn 4, complete with a breakfast buffet with three kinds of grits for $6.50. The track’s restrooms were borderline spotless, and the lighting eliminated any blind spots.
But East Bay doesn’t need convenient restaurants, luxury boxes, or clean bathrooms to sell itself; the racing does a fine job on its own. On this given evening – an evening I was told was small by East Bay standards – I saw five full classes of cars, including late models, sprint cars, and modifieds.
The three premier classes combined with two mini-stock classes left no need for three classes full of beat-up Monte Carlos that plague paved tracks. All the cars in the top three divisions were painted brilliantly, complete with eye-catching graphics and quite a few local sponsors.
Every race featured battles all over the multi-groove racetrack. Unlike paved short tracks, no one ran over anybody to get to the lead. Cars raced low and high, searching for a clean lane to the front, all slinging dirt but not racing dirty. In a word, refreshing.
For the record, I have always been a paved-track guy. I bounce back and forth between Ocala and Citrus County Speedway and have nary a regret after a weekend. But dirt racing has an uncontrolled excitement that asphalt racing cannot match.
There’s something very cool about watching drivers wrestle their cars sideways around a racetrack, each one taking a little different line than the next. Single file freight trains don’t exist, clean passing is abundant, and the passion is rampant.
That, my racing brethren, is why the stands are packed.
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Re: Dirt track racing may be the answer |
By karen on
5/5/2007 8:45 PM |
If you want to see the best dirt track racing then you need to travel to Ohio to Eldora Speedway for the Worlds 100 in Sept. You can camp across the road or all around the area and it's the best three day show ever.
The Dream is coming up which is where Donnie Moran got his nickname the Million Dollar Man. But on Wednesday June 6th the Nascar guys will be there for the Prelude to the Dream. The Dream is the following weekend.
This track is owned by Tony Stewart but we have been fans of this track long before he owned the establishment. |
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Re: Dirt track racing may be the answer |
By Joe on
5/6/2007 8:00 AM |
| I'm pretty excited about the prelude coming up. I just noticed it will be on HBO, probably stacked between two episodes of The Sopranos. |
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Re: Dirt track racing may be the answer |
By Karen on
5/6/2007 8:50 AM |
Yes just heard it will be on HBO that will save a bunch of money in gas and other necessities. Just will have to schedule family visits later in the summer.
But the thrill of not being there will be the hardest. |
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Re: Dirt track racing may be the answer |
By Tim on
5/6/2007 10:38 AM |
| Don't forget southeast Indiana, Liberty Indiana has a great dirt race on friday night ( union county speedway ) as does Lawerenceburg In. on sat. night. ( at the fair grounds ) |
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Re: Dirt track racing may be the answer |
By Tim on
5/6/2007 10:42 AM |
| Don't forget southeast Indiana, Liberty Indiana has a great dirt race on friday night ( union county speedway ) as does Lawerenceburg In. on sat. night. ( at the fair grounds ) |
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Re: Dirt track racing may be the answer |
By Tom Millaer on
5/7/2007 1:50 PM |
| Give Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Georgia a shot. This is one of the tracks where Bill Elliott raced before going into NASCAR. They also used to host the Hav-A-Tampa series. There is nothing like good dirt track racing. I have been to Ocala Speedway and won't sell them short, but give me dirt and I'm in my glory. |
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Re: Dirt track racing may be the answer |
By Karen on
5/10/2007 4:02 AM |
| There is a site on the computer that has Dirt Track racing and you can listen to them or pay a fee and watch. They have Late Models, Modifieds and Sprints. |
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