Florida, Florida, Florida, and More Florida
Even for hard core fans, Speedweeks in Florida may be too much racing. I am sure long time fans pace themselves, but I would want to spend every second I could around a race track in a warm weather state in February.
I have to admit the idea of parking a motor home at the East Bay Raceway Park campground for a week has great appeal for me. Walk over to my reserved grandstand seat to watch time trials and later the Lucas Oil stars racing, talking with fans from around the country, having a dry place to go when it rains, not having to deal with Tampa traffic each night all sounds good to me.
After the week of East Bay late models, head north to Daytona and Volusia. Park the camper at Volusia, but spend days at Daytona watching NASCAR’s big three series practice along with taking in the Twin 150’s on Thursday, the Nationwide Series 300 miler on Saturday, and the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Evenings would be enjoyed watching WoO and UMP late models and DirtCar Big Block Modifieds.
I don’t know this could be considered two weeks of “getting my fill” of racing, or if it would be overdosing on the sport, but I wouldn’t mind trying it once. Yeah, it is on my bucket list when I win the lottery.
Steve Francis won two of the three Lucas Oil point races that finished up the late model portion of East Bay’s Winternationals. Dennis Erb Jr. sandwiched a victory between the two Francis wins. The Lucas Oil Dirt Series point standings leaving Florida shows Erb in first place, Jimmy Owens in second, Francis in third, Randy Korte in fourth, and Jonathan Davenport a solid fifth.
Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala hosted three nights of WoO late model action. Darrell Lanigan followed up his $20,000 Screven win by capturing the feature on Bubba night one. Josh Richards took home the big money on Bubba night two, and Rick Eckert finished first on Bubba night three. Going into Volusia action, Lanigan leads the WoO late model point standings, followed by Richards, Eckert, Shane Clanton, and Bub McCool.
That other WoO division was also in action in Florida last weekend. Danny Lasoski followed an All Star 410 sprint win at Volusia with a WoO win on February 18th. Not bad for a self-owned team racing on a budget. According to Area Auto Racing News, the Missouri driver will be racing about 30 events in Pennsylvania for Tom and Fran Chiapelli who had previously sponsored Chad Kemenah. In addition to the Speedweeks and Pennsylvania races, Lasoski will be racing atKnoxville on Saturday nights and filling out his 100 race schedule with tour events.
The WoO sprinters did double duty on Sunday, with Donny Schatz taking the afternoon checkers, and Craig Dollansky winning the evening feature. After Volusia action, Schatz leads the WoO points, followed by Sammy Swindell. The 410 wind ‘em ups are off until a March West Coast swing starting in Las Vegas.
Wow, that was a lot of results. Too many. I promise not to do this again in 2012. I would much rather spout my unvarnished, unwashed, uneducated opinions. Tomorrow I will talk about several emails I received today regarding gas prices rumored to hit $5.00 per gallon by Memorial Day.
First email: “Gas prices…will shutter weekly racing this year. Will it shutter specials too??” A reply: “Day-Cation will help specials.”
I would love to hear what you have to say about how $4.00-$5.00 per gallon gas will effect your racing this season.
Thanks for stopping by.
You for got the truck race in your list! And I hope I have enough coin to get home to NE this year!
That was intentional Ivan. I would rather watch the dirt track action on Friday night than the truck race at Daytona. My son in the truck fan of the family.
Coin? I don’t know about how much coin you have, but I suspect you will have plenty of big denomination green bills in your pocket to get home on.
Will Roush Fenway sweep the150′s like they did the front row at the big track? Congrats Jack on a great Speedweeks so far.
If they do, the fix is in for Ford this year.
Are you on vacation?
Every year at this time, I wish I could just go Florida speedweeks just once, especially the Volusia week. Fly in on Saturday night, hit the big track on Sunday for D500 pole day. I do admit I like watching qualifying. Hit Volusia for the next 6 nights racing, take in the Gatorade Duels on Thursday. I would love to attend that truck race on Friday night, but Im dirt track fan first and by Friday night the gloves come off so to speak and competitors are done screwing around(testing) in these week long events. Maybe catch the nationwide race on Saturday afternoon before the Volusia finale and fly home Sunday. My hopes are always dashed by the hotel rates and airfare/car rental rates. One hotel was charging $85 Sunday and Monday night, the rest of the week $209. Plus throw in ticket prices for 6 nights in the Gator Pond, it adds up quickly.
As far as gas prices, we hear the same thing every year. Its gonna go up, I dont forsee it hitting $5 like some fear. The american media really does a great job of putting “doom and gloom” into there listening audience. In May of last year, everybody thought the world was gonna end because prices hit the $4 tag in most areas. Will it hit that number this year, you bet. May is the beginning of the summer driving season, no naturally the prices will go up, they always have– always will.
Fans that complain about gas prices drastically affecting there attendance, need a reality check. If that extra $10-$15 its gonna cost to fill the tank to head to your favorite track for the weekend or hitting a weekend special several hours away, probably are cutting it too close to be that entertainment choice for the weekend. Here some advice, start planning ahead…… this year Im putting money into a designated account each week to use as money to go racing. Naturally in the offseason its building up, but it will come in handy during the SDN, USA Nationals, and Knoxville.
Of course fans can always by one less beer, tshirt, cheesburger and so on. I spent a grand total of $13 in concession at I-80 Speedway during the SDN weekend. If a guy my size can do it, anybody can.
Oh, I hear a Sprint Cup driver is gonna piloting a Late Model tonight. No its not one mentioned in this blog awhile ago. Nor is it either of 2 WoO Sprint Car team owners.
This ought to be interesting.
We could probably work on a one-way ticket to Florida for you; although you’d be there much longer than just February.