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Since the post war era sprint car racing in Florida was a very active and growing sport at a time when sprint cars were otherwise nearly non-existent in the South. Last year it was difficult to find a sprint car race in the state sans a handful of TBARA 360 winged asphalt races and an occasional rag-tag, mostly carbureted, near sprint dirt races.
While TBARA is currently nearly extinct the dirt scene is looking toward a much better future of late. In the last few weeks Volusia Speedway near Daytona has been leased to the former owner and current lien holder of East Bay Raceway near Tampa and scheduled 19 shows including a few actual 360 fuel injected races. The near sprints have had fields of 28 and 31 respectively at the two shows that have thus far been held. Recently Ocala Speedway has undergone an ownership change and has just scheduled 6 near sprint shows, two of which will be run without the trainers (wings) on top. The purses, while not as good as days gone by, are non the less eclipsing a grand to win and I expect to see them increase as both fan support and sponsor bases grow. Additionally both tracks have end of the year points bonus payouts and banquets planned.
One of the issue of concern to proper growth however is a lack of bonified tech inspections that could result in a rampage of cheating to a set of loosely compiled rules that currently embrace a large spectrum of what constitutes a sprint car.
I'm hopeful that we will be able to navigate a successful regeneration of sprint car racing in the Sunshine State.
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