February 9

FSCR

SpeedWorld Ready for Winternationals Competitors

by Dave Westerman

Cars and drivers have already begun to arrive at Orlando Speedworld and stake out a small claim of pit space in preparation for the 2004 Winternationals that begin Tuesday.

Speedworld has been "spruced up" over the past week including the re-sealing and striping of the pit area. Billy Cuddy painting spent a full day repainting the walls, press box and other areas to give the track a "fresh" look and the track itself was re-striped.

"We're ready to go," said track GM Dick Westfall while at Saturday's racing car show at Auto Parts of Taft in South Orlando. "For the life of me, I don't know where we're going to put all these race cars, but we'll manage somehow... and have fun while we're doing it," he said.

Legends Cars, Bandeleros, Classic Cars, Thunder Roadsters, Baby Grands, BM Modifieds, and Mini Cup Cars will race over the five nights of competition.

Kyle Busch, who won yesterday's ARCA race at Daytona and will be driving on the Busch Grand National circuit this year for car owner Rick Hendrick, hopes to helicopter in for the final night of racing on Saturday providing he doesn't win the Hersey's Kisses 300 earlier in the day which would mean a ton of media commitments.

2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year Carl Edwards hopes to compete in a Baby Grand machine on Saturday after running the truck race Friday night at Daytona.

Fans are invited out on Monday starting at 1PM for open practice. There is no grandstand admission, in fact, there is also no grandstand admission on Tuesday night either, so fans can watch the first night of racing for free. Grandstand admission will still only be five dollars Wednesday through Saturday. Pit area admission is $25 each day.

For a complete schedule of events, log on to www.fascar.org and click on the Speedworld information banner or call the track at (407) 568-1367.



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