Eastbay needs new owners

[Rick Williamson]

A parking lot?

[Trash Inturn4]

The downtown track was Plant Field, they started racing cars there in 1927
and ran until the mid 70s. When the State Fair moved to I-4 and 301 the new track was built, it was flat and rough without much side by side racing.
There was a third track out by where the airport is today but it wasn't associated with the State Fair, but Im not sure of the years it operated.

[Boneman]

Even worse than a parking lot! The present site is a soccer field. It is on the campus of the University of Tampa.

[Razpewton]

Ya know...I don't know a whole lot about much, but one thing I have noticed...

I think every track in the southeast has been slandered, criticized and condemned to hell at one time or another.

So I say they shut them ALL DOWN and we could all start up a croquet league.

[1wildfastgirl24]

Thats weird man....I've been thinking that OSF is actually the same person as "1wildfastgirl24".

YOUR FUNNY....LMAO ....Just ask Raz he knows who I am,And he also knows I never hide behind a fake name....Hate to bust your bubble but you have definatly been thinking WRONG!! LOL

[Razpewton]

YOUR FUNNY....LMAO ....Just ask Raz he knows who I am,And he also knows I never hide behind a fake name....Hate to bust your bubble but you have definatly been thinking WRONG!! LOL

Yup...I can vouch for her. er entire fambily are racers.

[Headguy]

Back in the day

The tampa fairgrouds track of old was indeed called Plant field. It had been , at one time, a horse track. One of the features of this half mile layout was the "Stands" as opposed to bleachers. It had a roof over the seating. The stands were on the west side of the track and the crowd was shielded from the afternoon sun.

Right across the street, Cass Street, to the north there was a stadium called Phillips field. High school football place. Oddly it had a track surrounding the playing field that was asphalt not cinder as one would expect. When the winter race crowd would come down to Florida, There would be spirited Midget races at Phillips field. I'm Talking late 40s, early fifties here.

Plant field spawned some very competant drivers. Frank Luptow and Pancho Alvarez come to mind. Theyy both went on to the Big time. Another regular driver at Plant field was Emil Reutimann. He was the first of the now famous Zephyr Hills racer dudes.

There was a dirt track north of Tampa off of US301 on Fowler or Fletcher, cant remember whuch. At some point in time the track property was sold. The contractor who was to extract all the clay and stuff from the location was clever. He sold the dirt and clay to a now famous building site that was under construction. The site is Busch Gardens.

Ther is still a track in Lakeland surrounding a football field. It is called Bryant stadium. Cinder and clay. The Midgets used to run there and also motorcycles sometimes. Of course that use would be out of the question these days. Auburndale Speedway used to have a dirt track inside the asphalt track. Motorcycles ran there on occassion.

Plant Field racing was done on a run what you brung basis. Most of the cars were what we'd now call sprints. Midgets regularly ran in the same heats and features as the big cars. There was a guy Named "Pop" Hukle form Tampa. He built race cars using Ranger engines. These were huge air cooled aircraft engines that never turned more than 3000 RPM. They did not need to. With about 600 cubic inches they were stout. They won a Lot. Luptow drove one for quite some time and campaigned it in the Mid west.

[ronabneysr]

most of all of you were right about old dirt tracks

plant field - the one down town was best - the one out by i-4 and hwy 301 fairgrounds sucked i don't know how many people died there i know the track was so dusty you could not see one foot in front of you my brother don abney was going down back straightway full bore and car in front of him fliped and went tru front of top of his hood wide open one worse wrecks i ever seen broke hip- legs arm - shoulder hand pelvis collarbone jaw and he was in hospital eight months in tractions and till this day has trouble walking with his hip but he don't complain .i don;t think they ever put any water on that track

[ronabneysr]

i did not say any thing bad about east bay

so get that straight ok you got some thing to bitch about use your own name it's about the only track you can go to that the cars pass each other and it ain't follow the leader . or you fall asleep

[bossman1258]

East Bay is doing a great job I went there in the early 80's and left and went to citurs then to Desoto and now I am coming back to East Bay to race next year . Have been there lately in the past month and the track has been good the people were nice . If you think this track is bad then you should go to Desoto that would make you want to stop racing.

[AJ14]

I thought the Ocala surface was pretty decent . Don't forget about the " other " dirt track . Putnam County Speedway in Palatka is still going . The times i've raced there the surface was good . Also got to be one of the friendliest tracks i've encoutered .