This years Florida 400 has been cancelled this year ,see everyone next year thanks again race fans and drivers.
Any particular reason as to why this race was canceled?
My guess here, is that since the PRI races at Orlando have also been cancelled/not scheduled, there won’t be many travelers in town during that period of time.
What a shame: 2 years ago, Open Wheel fans could (and I did), see the Winged Sprints at Desoto, Silver Crown cars at Lakeland, Non-Winged Sprints, Midgets, and Ford Focus Midgets at Orlando… all within 1 WEEK!
Now, not one of the above races is being held.
Truly sucks for guys like Jack Tripper, Haudfan, Billy Badd, myself, and plenty of others that really show our support for Open Wheel racing. Too bad the Florida 400 couldn’t stand on its own without the Steve Lewis/USAC group being in town the upcoming week, and it sure isn’t John’s fault on this one (from what I can see). I’m sure it looks like a no-win situation for him.
Seems to me that promoters in this state just aren’t trying very hard . And there is no logical excuse for the USAC cars not being booked into Orlando at least once every year .A town the size of Orlando has at least 200,000 people who have retired from the midwest and know and love the USAC cars . With PROPER advertising and promotion , the place would be filled with or without the PRI show .
And if the track owners don’t stop playing their games , like intentionally schedueling Super Lates on top of each other ( often just as a bluff as they don’t have access to enough cars to put on a race in the first place ) The Super Lates are going to die out . The fans are tired of 12 car Super Late races that could just as easily be 40 car races if the promoters would mature a little bit .
And by the way track owners and promoters , dragging cars away from other tracks is nothing more than lazy and very short sighted . Try building your own car count instead of stealing everyone elses . Much more successfull for everyone that way .
Florida 400, 08
I think John still should run the Florida 400. It would be the only show in town.
The USAC Guys didn’t support the race anyway. Tony Elliott was the only one.
Also i like to see someone beat Dave Steele.
I suspect John can’t run the 400 , not won’t . The USAC show at PRI had just about every touring USAC driver there was . The drivers supported it and would continue to support it . And , they put on a great show .
Beating David Steele in a sprint car on asphalt is a mighty tall order .
It really is a shame because the track is shaped near perfect for the non wing sprints. I’ve been to hundreds of sprint car races of all types and was always impressed with the way the wingless sprints could pass at DeSoto. The same cannot be said about OSW, the USAC cars all played ‘huggy pole’ every race.
Frasson is making me sad…two years ago Florida truly was a pavement sprint car fan’s dream. Watching Wayne Reutimann Sr. carve through that field at Lakeland, including Tony Stewart, only to come up short when his wheel didn’t want to cooperate any more, that’s something I’ll always remember.
Now, we got nothing. I keep hearing rumblings that someone was going to give it a go with the USAC showing bailing on PRI. I can’t say I fault John, getting out-of-state invaders to tow in with this economy and gas prices…that’s a mighty tall order.
Guess we’ll just have to all wait for February to roll around.
That was a great week 2 years ago…Just my opinion but a non sanctioned race is hard to pull off in December. The USAC guys only came because of the national points. Talked to some TBARA teams before last year’s 400 and most didn’t race because that was the time they used to tear the cars down, order new parts and what not. I would suspect the cars from up north are in the same boat. Waiting for a new chassis or parts and recovering from long expensive schedules…I hope the PRI races & 400 come back…But on the bright side I get to save some money for those Speedweeks shows at North Florida & Ocala in February.