4-17 Southern Speedway and events Grand Opening

[sunshinestateracing2]

4-17 Southern Speedway and Events was looking great last night. Other than the shower that ended the night early, everyone looked to have a great time. Was great to see racing here again.

The Trucks were moved to tonight so if you are looking for something to do tonight head to Punta Gorda.

Here are some pictures of the track.

[sunshinestateracing2]

More pictures of the track go check it out

[sunshinestateracing2]

More from Opening night

[sunshinestateracing2]

A few from the drivers meeting

[Old Sunshine Fan]

Great pictures of the rebirth of a race track... the place looks amazing, never looked this good... It has a great fan base and will do well as long as they are consistent, fair with the rules and policies, Suggest they do a lot of advertising as does Citrus Co... Good Luck to all.... OSF

[sunshinestateracing2]

A few from the racing action

[Racefan99]

Do they still let people bring lawn chairs and sit on the hill above turn four?

[zerofor]

Yes

I saw people doing it last night.

[Bobby Diehl]

LeRoy has a smile on his face!!!!

LeRoy has a smile on his face!!!! Joe you and your Staff have worked hard to bring back one of the BEST Speedways in the State!!! Good luck and hope to make it down. Pictures clearly show the ENERGY in the air.

[Racefan99]

Nice to see the track reopen. Wasn't sure that would ever happen after the way things ended with the previous operator.

Good to see Cody Stickler win the OWM race. He kept his car clean the whole night and drove smart every lap.

If the new group is looking for any input from the fans, here are a couple of observations.

Heat races are pretty boring for most race fans. If a class has less than 12 cars, it might be a better show for the fans if the track skipped heat races for that class and instead added 5-10 laps to the feature distance. That way, if a driver had a bad pill draw, it would give him/her a few extra laps to make their way to the front. Watching a heat race with 2 cars in one class and 5 in another, in very cold weather, did nothing but make the fans colder.

Always have the green flag flying for the featured class by 9pm at the latest. Making fans wait through heat races, an intermission, and the other features, in the cold, before the OWM race was not appreciated. The numbers of fans who left, due.to the cold, before the OWM finally got started was noticeable where I sat. Maybe.some already saw the classes they were interested in, and left due.to that, I don't know. But regardless, my group would come.more often if we knew the featured class would be.done by 930. This is.also especially true.when the summer months come.

Loved hearing Racin Jason's voice again at the track. He has become.a part of the experience at the track.

We liked the fries they served. Different than the usual French fries, and tasty.

Facility looked great. Hope it becomes a hit again with local racing fans.

[Benny The Mule]

Great to see it open again!

[99plummer]

Track looked great ,,, Joe and his staff did a great job .. Cant wait for more races to come !

[openwm53]

Results

Who has results ? Open wheels ?