|
| Orlando SpeedWorld Partners with PRI, MOPAR AND USAC for Big December Show | The official kickoff for the 2005 Performance Racing Industry Trade Show was held Wednesday night at Race Rock in Orlando and there was a big announcement regarding Orlando Speedworld.
The Performance Racing Industry Trade Show (PRI) is moving to Orlando from its former home in Indianapolis, IN and will be held December 1-3 at the Orange County Convention Center. The expanded show will be held in the new one-million square foot North/South Complex Exhibition Halls.
Over 1,400 companies will be exhibiting the latest in auto racing technology in over 3,400 booths. The event is expected to attract over 50,000 people to Orlando.
As part of the PRI festivities, there will be a special racing event held at Orlando Speedworld on Friday night, December 2nd.
The 1st Annual Mopar PRI Sprint and Midget Classic is the event, and for the first time in the 31 year history of Orlando Speedworld, the United States Auto Club (USAC) will be the sanctioning body.
The evening of racing will culminate with twin 40-lap features for the USAC Midgets and Sprint cars, but there is a catch... a $50,000 catch.
The winner of the Midget feature will be invited to start the sprint car feature at the back of the field. Should that driver win the sprint car main as well, he'll receive a bonus of $50,000.
One driver who will undoubtedly be a favorite is Tampa's Dave Steele.
Steele, the 2004 USAC Silver Crown champion who has already won five times in TBARA competition in Florida this year, cut his teeth in three-quarter midget racing at Speedworld and has plenty of laps around the three-eighths mile oval in both sprints and midgets too.
Sprint cars have been a fixture at the track since TBARA returned to race here after several years hiatus back in 1998. Midgets have run occasionally, the last time three years ago in February sanctioned by the former NAMARS organization which produced some incredible racing.
Many current USAC stars and racers who have gone on to Indy Car and NASCAR careers raced three-quarter midgets at Speedworld including Steele and 2004 TBARA champion Dude Teate. Before he moved on to a stellar career in USAC, IRL, and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, Tony Stewart wowed the crowd in 1991 by winning the Florida State TQ Midget Championship at the age of 18.
The USAC sprint car race on December 2nd will be produced as a "Special Event," but the midget race will be part of the USAC National Midgets Series point schedule. Over 40 cars are expected in each division.
All event qualifying and practice will take place on Thursday, December 1st, so the racing industry and local fans can be treated to flag-to-flag racing action in a compact time frame on Friday evening.
All of this means the Speedworld crew will have an incredible chore ahead of them since the event the previous Friday will be the Fall Crash-A-Rama which typically leaves the track and surrounding grounds a huge mess.
"Normally the Fall Crash-A-Rama is no big deal because it's the last show of the year and we've got plenty of time to clean up," says FASCAR General Manager Don Nerone. "Now, not only do we have to clean up everything, we have to get all the debris and trash trucked out then have to spruce up the place for the huge crowd the following week. But I have confidence that Team FASCAR will work together as we always do and make this PRI event one to remember, he says.
Track Manager Rusty Marcus is equally confident and says the show will be incredible. He also likes the tie-in with Mopar as the title sponsor of the event.
"We've had such a great relationship with Orlando Dodge over the past several years that having Mopar as title sponsor means a lot to us personally and, frankly, I can wait for the PRI show and the races here, it's gonna be awesome," says Marcus.
The kickoff was attended by around 200 people who will be directly affected by the an event the size of PRI coming to Orlando including those from the Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau, hotel and motel, restaurants, and local attractions. Orlando Speedworld and FASCAR were well-represented also.
As part of the PRI Kick-off festivities, a pit stop competition was held and the Orlando Speedworld team of Jason Borgese, Chris Brown, Dominic Marchese, Brandon Thomson and Doug Webb won the competition with a time of 20.83 seconds, beating their nearest competition by over five seconds.
Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board!
or send a letter to the editor!
|
