DRUMS, Pa. — It’s time to wave the green flag on the sprint car portion of Florida Speedweeks 2024.
All of this year’s traditional wintertime Florida sprint car action will take place during a 43-day period. Covering six weekends, racing starts Jan. 13 and ends Feb. 24.
There are 35 shows scheduled on 28 days with six series competing at eight race tracks. That’s quite a bit of sprint car racing jammed into 43 days.
The Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series, USCS, USAC, Top Gun, World of Outlaws, High Limit Racing and non-sanctioned 360 winged sprints and pavement sprints will all be in competition.
The pavement SSSS sprints kick it all off at Auburndale Speedway on Jan. 13. The following weekend, Jan. 18-20, will feature three nights of 360 racing with Top Gun Sprints at East Bay Raceway Park. Top Gun has gone to 360 engine rules this year similar to those used by USCS and ASCS.
East Bay Raceway Park is in its final year of operation. The third-mile dirt track opened in February 1977 and I’ve been going there since the 1990s. I am going to miss watching races at East Bay.
The next weekend, Jan. 25-27, Volusia Speedway Park hosts USCS for the second annual Southern Sprint Car Shootout. The final night pays $10,000 to the winner.
Also on Jan. 27, SSSS pavement sprint cars will race at Citrus County Speedway. The following weekend, Feb. 2-3, USCS will travel south of Lake Okeechobee to Hendry County Speedway for Friday and Saturday racing at the southernmost dirt track in the United States.
The Dave Steele Wing Championship is at Showtime Speedway the same weekend.
The World of Outlaws are up next on Feb. 7-10 with the DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park. The All Stars are gone, so there will be four nights of World of Outlaws racing instead of two nights of All Stars and three nights of Outlaws.
Those Friday and Saturday nights will be busy with USCS racing at Southern Raceway in Milton and USAC sprint cars in action at Bubba Raceway in Ocala. USAC sprint cars are racing two weekends at the Ocala track this year for the first time. I also noticed they are starting to use the name Ocala Speedway once again in some track advertising and it’s nice to see the name return.
Top Gun Sprints are also at Hendry County on Saturday night, Feb. 10, with the Dave Steele Non-Wing Championship at Showtime Speedway, making five tracks all running sprint cars on the same night in the Sunshine State.
The USAC sprint cars move to Volusia Speedway Park on Feb. 12-13. On the same two nights, the High Limit Racing series opens its season at East Bay Raceway Park.
It will be the final 410 sprint car event at East Bay. It’s interesting that High Limit Racing will sanction the last 410 sprint car event there in only its second season, as the World of Outlaws was the first 410 series to visit East Bay during that series’ second season in 1979.
On Feb. 15-17, the USAC sprint cars will be back at Ocala for a second weekend of racing, while the final King of 360s sprint car event will be run the same weekend at East Bay.
Florida Speedweeks will conclude Feb. 23-24 with USCS at Southern Speedway.
Highlighted by the Florida debut for the High Limit Racing series, seven nights of USAC sprint car racing and the initial chapters in East Bay’s farewell, it should be an interesting start to the new sprint car season.
This story appeared in the Jan 10, 2024 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
