Happy 35th Birthday Speedworld

[cake]

I saw it on the This Day in Central Florida History segment on the news that on August 18th 1974 Orlando Speedworld opened its doors.

They also sait it was still a "Hot Spot" for fans to come.

[dd38]

Yep I remember that day (was there). One day before my B-day. Reverse the #'s and that's what I am now (as of the 19th). UGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! If I had known I was gonna last this long, would of taken much better care of this body.

[Cara]

I started going to OSW in 1976 and I was 8 years old. Remember hearing all the racing stories from my Dad and begged him to take me to see the races. Fell in love with it and still love racing. Never knew that I would become a driver but I think my Dad did. I know he is watching me from above but wish he was here to help.

[ancrdave]

Ed Meredith and Gene Johnson were the big winners that day... Sad that neither is still around...

[tedrichard]

Yeah, I was there that day too. I still remember Wayne Heckel eating the steering wheel in his Chevelle. Some idiot lost it on the inside coming out of turn 4, tried to save it and ended up coming back out on the track facing traffic and Wayne collected him. 35 years ago, huh? Now, if I could just remember what I had for breakfast this morning!!

[dd38]

Yea that was a bad deal with Wayne Heckle. Don Hatcher was the one he hit. Wasn't pretty. He always wore one of those full face "Bubble " shields. Got to see the healing process. They (The Heckle's) basically raised me back then.

[AB195]

Glad To Have A Birthday--

You bet.
Any RaceWay having a birthday is a great sign. And this was, what, 35?
Hialeah Raceway was 51 years old. But--
Losing memory here, how old was.......

(how many years did they exist?)

New St. St. Augustine Raceway?
Old St. Augustine Raceway?
Sunshine Speedway in St. Pete?
USA in Lakeland? (the old 1/4 miler, and the old 5/8 miler).?
Vero Beach Raceway?
Eau Galle Raceway?
Treasure Coast Raceway?
Old Orlando Raceway?
Rocket/Sunbrock Speedway?
Deland Raceway?
Florida City Speedway?
Golden Gate?
Old Hollywood Speedway?
Jax Raceway?
Old Jax Speedway?
Palm Beach FairGrounds Speedway?

[Boneman]

Florida City Speedway, 1964 - 1976, Only 12 years.

Long live Speedworld!

[cake]

Yeah, I was there that day too. I still remember Wayne Heckel eating the steering wheel in his Chevelle. Some idiot lost it on the inside coming out of turn 4, tried to save it and ended up coming back out on the track facing traffic and Wayne collected him. 35 years ago, huh? Now, if I could just remember what I had for breakfast this morning!!

captain crunch perhaps?

[tedrichard]

Yea that was a bad deal with Wayne Heckle. Don Hatcher was the one he hit. Wasn't pretty. He always wore one of those full face "Bubble " shields. Got to see the healing process. They (The Heckle's) basically raised me back then.

Dave? Oh yeah, dd38. You were the star in one of my other "things I'll never forget" incidents. Speedweeks, New Smyrna, what was it, 82, 83. It was the first year I had the 3rd design Howe with the Caddy body on it. It was also the year that Richard Coffin bought it I'm pretty sure. I wrecked on the first night and missed Sunday night so I was way in the back in the points. I think this was probably Monday night, I started on the tail of the A main and I was just gonna run until the leaders came up to lap me and pull off. Well, guess who was leading? You were up there running tooth and nail with a few other cars, I saw y'all in my mirror going into one, so I was gonna pull in that lap. As I'm going down the backstretch I see Kenny Copley going real slow down on the bottom......I'm still clipping along pretty good and, well the problem was I had NO brakes! The brake line was too close to the exhaust and after a few laps it would boil the fluid. Well, I had commited to the apron to go into the pits and I had 2 choices, run slap into Kenny and knock BOTH of us out into the groove or try to swerve around him and then get back down out of the way before y'all got there. Well, all these years I'll bet you wondered why that idiot in the 74 car pulled right out in front of you! My timing was a bit off, you nailed my RF with your LF and it turned you like RIGHT into the turn 3 wall, a TON! Knocked you out cold, didn't do much for either one of our cars....... I was really sick about that, still feel bad about it after all these years. Just not a hell of a lot I could have done about it at the time. I guess it falls under the category "One of them racing deals". I fixed the car and the rest of the week I just took the green and parked it so I could collect my $50and go home. To make matters even worse a night or 2 after that the Richard Coffin deal happened right in front of me. That was a REAL bad year. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you what happened and that I'm sorry about it. You weren't in real good shape at the time so I never apologized in person........