Ocala
 

65 S to 24 E to 75 S, Ocala eta 7p :32:

Have a safe trip and we will see you guys next week. Thanks.

Re: Ocala
 

We're sitting it out this year and going next month to St. Pete.

Enjoy, and watch one for ME! :6:

Myself and nephew are headed that way on Wednesday February 12th hope to see a lot of iow followers and three nights of great USAC racing

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We will be there Wednesday the 12th

Good luck on that. Count on an hour 2 delay on traffic. Flying down Thursday for both weekends.

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I live in north vernon we go 50 to 275 to 75 straight down depending what time you go through Atlanta you can usually roll right through it see everyone friday

Our racing families will be leaving from Greensburg around 6 pm next
Tuesday and taking the same road trip. Missing most of the traffic headaches. LOL. We should be in Ocala Wednesday morning around 6 am for a 12 hour road trip. Eat some breakfast and check into the hotel and go do some sight seeing and getting our game face on for the weekend. Lol.

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Do the racing families let you drive? :D:D:D

He’s lucky they let him ride INSIDE the car.

Jen.... that's something you should take the opportunity to experience on a great racing road trip. Never a dull moment as long as the mountains are BLUE!!!! Thanks 🤣

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Best advice to drive straight through Atlanta on 75 and in the middle of the night. Just returned from Florida and tried the west side Atlanta by-pass on 285. Big mistake... road construction everywhere and down to 1 lane in lots of spots, with traffic backed up for 5 miles. Where there was no road work going on, big cracks and holes in concrete pavement. Another major delay could be driving south through Chattanooga on 75. Took me over 2 hours to get through on a Thursday afternoon. On the return trip, drove through about 6 AM on a Sunday morning to miss traffic.

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I drive a few times a year to Florida from Michigan. I have found it does not really matter what way you go, what time you leave. When it is 8am in the morning, noon, 5pm and you happen to be near a big city. you are sitting in a 2 hour delay. You time it to miss, Indy, you hit Nashville or Lexington wrong. Time it to miss that you hit Louisville or Chattanooga wrong. Time that right and you hit Atlanta wrong. Hit all of that right and you hit Tampa wrong. Just have a safe trip. It has been rainy and colder down there. Enjoy the racing.

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After years of going from Springfield IL to Tampa and then Ocala the last few years, I have given up on Atlanta completely. I-24 to Nashville where I hit I-65 on the west side of town and take it south all the way to Montgomery. In the southern part of Montgomery I exit onto South Boulevard which is several routes, including US 31, 80 & 82. Take that a few miles east to US 82/US 231 south. (NOT US 331). The only bottleneck on that whole route is Dothan AL, but it only takes 20 or so minutes. US 231 goes all the way to I-10, then I-75 to Ocala. US 231 from Montgomery is 4 lane and most of it has a 65 mph speed limit. Normal traffic speed is usually (much) higher. You trade going through Nashville, the mountains, Chattanooga and the Atlanta mess for what is mostly relatively open interstate and rural driving. Mapping services say this way may take about an hour more, but I am not sure when you take into consideration some of the bad traffic you see the other way. And it is way more relaxing.

Was told about this route 30 years ago when we used to take our modified to Floridia and are old truck had a problem with the mountains on I75. It's a few miles further but about the same time and a lot less traffic.

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Great advice. THAT would be a mess. We always take the west bypass when we go, too. Hopefully it will be cleared up by next month when we do our sorti?

Just FYI....I came through Atlanta this afternoon straight through on I75 about 3:45 PM. Not great, not terrible. Slowed down for about 8 miles to about 20 mph where I20 intersects I75 and then we were in stop and go traffic for about 5 miles on the S side where I285 ties back in.

If you are traveling down, be aware there were SEVERAL speed traps in Georgia on I75 both N and S of Atlanta.

Starting to think you all are just “rubbing it in “ to those of us who can’t go!
Actually I wish you all safe travels and cooperative weather. And to my buddy Mike who’s doing it a bit different this year, I hope you and the Sue have plenty of sunshine. We’ll be keeping an eye on you guys thanks to Floracing. Does anyone know if the great Robert Ballou is back?

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Going to USAC sprints at Ocala and 2 days of pavement for the Dave Steele race in Pinellas. Maybe a little rub in but haven't been in 9 years to sprints in Florida. Retired for a while :)

I live in Fort Myers Beach, FL and this is the route I use. Also, there is a good rest area on 231 near Ozark, AL.

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How’s the crowd? Hard to tell from TV.

Only 3 cars in the support class?!?

The Gladiator feature was great!!

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It really was :8: Now after I posted that I heard Klepper say they are expecting 20 tomorrow night.

Can anyone hear the cars?

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Barely, must be some good insulation in that booth.

20 cars. No noise on the broadcast. Might as well be electric. If this is the future of racing, count me out.

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Last year no operating speakers on the fourth turn side of the grandstand. Hopefully this has been fixed.

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I was glad to see the racing on flo tonight, I cant be there and I was only able to catch the feature but I was happy to see a midget race. Flo has some issues, but IMO the price of the product is ok for what I'm getting. I'm sure the quality of their productions will improve but it will be at the cost of the consumer and of course people will complain about that. Happy racing season!

It’s February 7, 20 degrees with flurries outside. We were able to watch a race tonight from the warmth of our couch. Absolutely NOTHING to complain about.

Anyone else disappointed with car count? I completely understand there’s lot of reasons, travel expenses, vacation time and so on that needs to be considered but when you get 350 in Tulsa, you would think you could get a tenth of that at a real race, especially with no competition on this continent

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Thankfully, it appears, there were some local teams that ran (padding the car count)..but, perhaps all is not right with the big-team business model to run a high number of races across the country...? Let's hope/assume when they get back closer to Indy there will be solid 22+ car fields...I'd have to check of any conflicts with the POWRi schedule, but I fear there could be some issues (like less than 18 cars), again this summer...maybe everyone can't afford the latest and greatest engine, shock package, carbon fiber body, etc...??? Time will tell. The season is young!

I was trying to recall the thread on this from back in like November?..Seems this concern was well discussed...? Likely not much came from it tho...(lol).

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Well that 20 count for Saturday missed by 16!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Bruce Eckel :17::D

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Yes it did, not sure where Klepper got his info. But it was still a 33.333% increase in car count :3:

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I don't know about other parts of the Midwest, but USAC car counts seem to be so so whenever they leave Indiana. I go to Eastern Storm every year, & I wish there were enough entries to make heats more meaningful.... whats the point if everybody makes the feature, & most (all?) of them get their qualifying times back?
I know they usually have to qualify thru the heats to get their times back, but what if everybody makes the feature? :11:

I thought the action was very good. That being said, I'd like to see the races moved to Southern Raceway Milton Fl just outside Pensacola. Bubba is a weird shaped track, an engine killer for midgets and not supported enough by fans or cars.

I was there both nights. I thought the crowd was decent for the chilly weather.
I will take the quality of cars there over car count any day. Feature friday night was worth the 1000 mile drive for me.

Stupid me went to the Outlaws at Volusia tonight. They had a lot of cars but we will just leave it at that.

I was at Ocala Friday and Saturday went to Volusia tonight, totally regret going to Ocala those 2 nights, heard from fans at Volusia past 2 nights were awesome. I wasted $25 a night to see 3 heats and a feature, meanwhile at Volusia 35 sprints and 40 mods. Next year when I come down I’m 100% skipping non wing

You had me at the 40 mods. To each is own. I will take 18 midgets over 35 wings every time.

I thought the racing was great, but four fresh motors grenaded in two nights is bad.