I am making the trip to Florida in February for the USAC shows. I need some help from locals, or any one who has been to this track before. What is the closest hotel to the track that is not a dive. Any other need to know info would be appreciated. Thank You in advance.

Hey Tom...you have many hotels 1 and 2 exits down from the speedway which is less then 5 miles south on I-75....book now to lock in a good rate...my group sssprints are staying at the Super 8 and got a weekly rate at 267.52 from Sunday to sunday with lots of truck parking...good deals out there...pm me if you need any farther assistance Wayne Davis

Straight from Ocala's webiste is a list of hotels with racers rates.

http://www.ocalaspeedway.com/track-i...e-to-stay.html

Well,

Maybe you guys can help me out. The last time I went to Florida was around 1992...lol and I saw the Pepsi Cola 400 at Daytona. So like you guys I wanted to see as much as Florida as possible. Of course if you are at Daytona you want to see the Daytona USA and of course tour the track in a bus/van around the track. There is also another museum just two miles away which has every corvette, ever made, plus vintage motorcycles and an assortment of Nascar vehicles. The corvettes are displayed in a garage setting of that particular era.

So I wanted to see some race tracks and I headed West from Daytona, Florida and I want to say about 45 minutes West of Daytona was a 1/2 mile asphalt banked track which I watched some racing, which I can't remember exactly what I watched, but there was a rather nice large banked 1/2 mile banked oval track where racing was held on saturday nights.

Continuing another hour or so East, I hit Ocala, Florida and if you are in Ocala it would be a shame not to visit Don Garlitts Racing museum. At the time he had two rather large buildings with a whole bunch of his dragsters plus a lot of cars from other famous people. The other buidling housed a lot of muscle cars, old vintage Ford vehicles, etc.
A very nice museum and it's kind of neat to see where Don Garlits lives. I don't know if he was there that day, but it is his museum, and his house is on the premises and his garage is in the back where he restores all his vehicles/dragsters.

So, I guess what I'm saying I would have a tendency to stay in Daytona, Florida although the drive to Ocala would be a bit long. But I did it a couple times on different days. When you are young and stupid driving a couple hours to see a race or a museum or a legend is not much time at all...lol!


Another thing I did, which you can't do now is go visit "Smokey". I tracked down where he lived and tried to see him. I found his Garage, which still had the sign "The Best Dam_ Garage in Florida", but I couldn't figure out how to ring his bell or find the entrance to his very large building where he built all those marvelous mystery motors. I met his daughter and I did see Smokey leave his garage in his station wagon with his doberman pincher dogs and I found the bookeeping entrance and met a man there that worked for Smokey but I could not figure out how to meet the man. But I saw him, where he lived and I saw his daughter and the sign "The best Dam_ garage in Daytona:..lol.

I had a lot of fun in Florida. There are also other things you can do, but you would have to travel a little. You could go see the oldest school in the United States, but that is another story...lol!. But it's a neat place in Florida, to see the old drug stores and all the old bottle of drugs, tables, bars and stools/chairs. I think the city is St Augustine. A must place to see if you are tourist.

Sincerely,

Larry Otani


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nYUF...layer_embedded

I don't mean to be a smart alec but 45 minutes East of Daytona Beach would be a way's out into the Atlantic Ocean. I think maybe the asphalt 1/2 mile your talking about West of Daytona Beach is New Smyrna Speedway. They run the World Series of Asphalt racing during the final week of Speedweeks in February. Silver Springs Park, which is near Ocala is a neat little side trip that is worth a little time and cash to see. It isn't Disney World but it's somewhat interesting nontheless. Blue Springs State Park near Orange City is a really nice attraction as well. It isn't all that far from Ocala and the springs, who's water comes from way North up in Georgia, boils out of a huge hole in the ground at a constant temperature of 72 or 73 degrees. Manatee's come from the St. Johns river when it gets cold to be in the warmer water. You can swim in the spring boil and during February you are nearly certain to see manatee there. Go fairly early in the morning as the place gets full later on and the earlier you get there the better your chances of spotting the most manatee.

Wish I was heading for Fla. this Feb. but circumstances are against it. Have fun and I envy you.

There are SOOO many attractions in and around Florida but in Feb. the MAIN ATTRACTION is Racing....need something to do during the day?, how 'bout some NON WING LIGHTNING SPRINTS...1000/1200cc upright lightning sprints....less then 2 miles south from Ocala Speedway right on the same road. Hot laps at noon racing at 1:00 done by 5:00 Ocala micro speedway is a 1/4 semi banked dirt track with lots of side by side non wing action....the best of the best will be here from Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and other area's. Champions from Wisc./Illinois Mini Sprint Assoc., American Mini Sprint Assoc. (IN), Illinois Mini Sprint Assoc., Midwest Mini Sprint Assoc.(IN/OH), Midwest Outlaw Lightning Sprints (KN/MO), USOMA, you can visit us at sssprints for more info. For those coming in a motor home OMS is going to provide a shuttle bus every hour for free. Admission will be $10.00 stands. so com on down

He may be referring to Volusia as at that time it was asphalt and is on the main road to Ocala from Daytona. As many of you know Volusia is now dirt and has alot of racing going on too. not sure what there schedule is but most the major series run either Eastbay then Volusia or the other way around. Just another option for racing as Volusia is only maybe an hour drive

You're abolutely right Mr. VSneader2. I didn't even give that a thought. In 1992 the smaller dirt track to the West of the 1/2 mile hadn't even been built out at Volusia yet. The first couple of years Volusia was asphalt they ran a program for the dirt late models there on the pavement. Never went out there for those shows but they must have been wild. Also saw the ISMA supers there on the asphalt. Lord, were those cars fast!!!

At that time we were still driving all the way up to Satsuma from Port Orange for our dirt track racing fix and that was dirt late models, no sprints at all. It wouldn't have been much further over to East Bay.

I also remember there had been a dirt track built up near St. Augustine right around that time (1992 or 1993?) but it didn't last long for some reason. Saw the World of Outlaw sprinters and the big block modifieds (I think) on the same program at that track by St. Augustine. Later they paved that place and then it just seemed to fade away along with Jax up near Jacksonville.

I think the sprinters run Volusia first and then go over to East Bay. They flip-flop with the dirt late models.

Ocala was dirt up until 97 i believe I went there every fri/sat night during the summer from 92 to 97 when I was there visiting my mom for the summer. That was some good racing back when David Reutimann was runing latemodels and modifieds.

---------- Post added at 04:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:17 PM ----------

For those that like latemodels who are going to ocala they are running at Voluisa that monday, tuesday and wednesday along with ump mods and big block mods

http://www.dirtcarnationals.com/inde...d=48&Itemid=59

both of you guy's are right It's great to live in Florida during Feb. Headed to East Bay tomorrow night for the Crate Late Model 10.000 to win show