Citrus Nationals

Dave Hedges piloted the Torco Racing Fuels / Knoll Gas Motorsports TA/D to the #1 qualifier position for the second year in a row at Moroso Motorsports Park Saturday. Bad weather on Sunday prevented racing that day. The track cancelled the remainder of the event. Now the kicker.
The racers recieved no money. Dave, Brian, Fred, and Bob travelled down from Michigan, two in the rig and two by airline, rented a car, missed work, beat up their parts on a tricky race track to qualify #1 and get nothing for this.
I stewed over this all night, and it makes me mad. The winter series used to have 25 cars per alky class at each race. With the way they are treating racers this year, they'll be lucky to have any non-Floridian cars next year.
I'm sure that Brian will think twice before he tows back down next year.

Marty

 

yes, it gets worse at moroso every year. i remember the days when the alcohol cars would be lined up all over. its a shame, the facility has the potential to be a really good venue. they are more interested in street car test n tune and import shows. at least we still have bradenton.
frank

 

sorry Will, i did not mean it to sound like i thought bradenton was a substandard facilty. i live 29 miles away from moroso but would rather drive the 3 1/2 hrs to bradenton to race.
frank

 

moroso

I did not attend that race even though I live in Florida because my dad refuses to run that track. I talked to a friend of mine who went there and she said her 60 foot time went off a whole tenth. I dont know if they dont know how to prep a track or what, but Moroso doesnt seem like a nice facility. Bradenton is amazing though, I love that track.

CJ Curtsinger

 

wow

I cant believe that was his response. Well, I can knowing that they have a bad rep, but still I wouldnt have thought they would be that rude. I would have wanted to hit him, or report it to NHRA. Im sure NHRA would like to know if they are housing a bad track. Theres no way a track should be prep'ed less than perfect when anything quicker than 7 seconds is running. It just gets too dangerous when cars going 250 are bouncing around.

CJ Curtsinger

 

there is no doubt that the actual racing surface at moroso has been in question for a few years now. they are going to concrete the entire 1/4 and raise the surface 9 inches this summer. slick top end conditions are an unfortunate by product of building a dragstrip on top of a swamp. i do want to comment on the staff at moroso. for the many years i have gone there and the folks that work the lanes, the tower, the ticket booth, tech, etc. have always been top notch to me, my family, and crew. the payouts, scheduling, and other assorted problems stem from UPPER management and some poor policies.
frank

 

Well the track's people skills start with upper management. When you have a problem you dont go to the ticket booth or starter, you need to talk to someone higher up. That is where the problem is. Im sure everyone else is nice as most traks hire nice people, but one bad manager can spoil an entire track. I used to race in the Qualcomm stadium's parking lot in San Diego, and even a parking lot can become a great facility when you have decent people managing it.

CJ Curtsinger

 

two years ago at the citrus i watched michael gunderson lay down a 5.21, he told me it was his second best 1/8 mph all year. the difference was that NHRA preped the track. perhaps NHRA should implement an educational program to its member tracks on preparing racing surfaces. a lot of tracks (not just moroso) may be able to benefit from that.
frank

 

How many cars DID show up? What kind of times did this "track" allow????

 

I'm embarassed to say that I was there. 7 alky dragsters qualified. Jeff Arend was there with the Erie Educational FC. I think they ran a 5.07 Saturday night. Paul Lee was driving the other Paul Smith Funny.

The beginning of the end of the Citrus Nationals began many many years ago.

 

crooks

Will,
"shame" is not the word for it. "Criminal" is closer. They pocketed all the front gate, back gate, and concession stands money and left the racers to loose all expenses.

It's not right.

Marty

 

Will,
I agree with you about Valdosta being a great place to hold a Winter Nationals type event. The weather here this time of year is much like the weather in SoCal. Cool to Cold at night and Cool to warm during the day.
Shad would probably be interested if approached correctly about it.
Clay

 

Clarification

Saturday I couldn't tell you how many people were there cause I wasn't there. Sunday the weather called for 30% chance or rain. I went there with a comrade. Arrived at 11 am and it was pouring. 30 mins later it cleared up and we went in. Walked around, shot some video, met some racers, did some business. At around noon the clouds opened up again and it rained and rained. The place wasn't packed on Sunday I can tell you that.
If you want to get something done log off your computer and call Moroso Motorsports Park at (561) 622-1400.
Write to Laura South, Exec Vice President: Mail@MorosoMotorsportsPark.com
Or Joanna Montante, Publicity Director: Info@MorosoMotorsportsPark.com
It's all public info. I pulled it off of their website.
Good luck you're gonna need it.

 

shame

it's a damn shame to think people like Marty who travel a distance cannot even get some "rain" money to help with travel and other expenses. Does Moroso think they will have a big return next year or don't they care? it's not cheap to run those rigs all over and pay crew to eat and sleep for nothing in return. now we see how bad publicity travels fast...

 

Saturday night was packed, but the demographics in this area draw on a crowd that really doesn't know much about dragracing. If the track can pack the place in without booking in some major teams, they will do so. As the event has erroded into what it is now, those who were hard core fans have stopped coming to this event. What you have now are spectators coming out who have never seen a fuel car, nor even know what one is. A good number have never seen jet cars, and most have only seen jets. Fuel cars are a rare item at this place. If it doesn't matter to the people paying at the gate, then the attitude is "why bother booking in some good top fuel cars, funny cars, fuel altereds when the people in the stands don't know any better".

For those who raced TAD and TAFC at the event in the past, I remember when they would have qualifying during the day and going into the evening. Now they don't start qualifying till the evening, and we all know how slimey the track surface can get at night. Again, management wants to save the qualifying for a Saturday evening show to accomodate the spectators. I remember when you could qualify during the day, most would, and when the evening round came about, most wouldn't even run. Management seems to think that the spectators were not being served as a result, so qualifying is strictly at night; no matter to the track conditions and lighting. You'd be hard pressed to get any promod racers to even show and run under that schedule and condition,, hence they have been dropped as have the TAFC's.

Back when Dick was alive, he had the track and the business to himself. I don't know if the track was being helped by the mfg business, but once he past on, the track went to daughter Sue, and the mfg business to son Rick. I won't go into details, but the two are completely separate from each other, as well as Rick and Sue not being all that close.

Rick being in the position that he is in, has had many racers try to complain to him about various issues at the track, and he just tells them that is isn't his deal, and has no control over what goes on out there. And he isn't about to call Sue and suggest anything.

Unfortunately for Sue, she was saddled with a huge tax liability once the track became her's. It had to be self sustaining as she didn't have the business up north to help it along. That was a pretty big challenge to deal with and I'm sure it caused her to cut corners to get over that financial burden.

The other unfortunate issue is the upper management in general. There isn't any doubt that the upper management seems to be more concerned with being touted as "woman owned and managed", than with being a kick butt track. The infrastructure is there for this place to be awesome, but we all know the deal. The upper management seems far and away from being entreprenurial and promotionally minded, which is what is needed to be successfull. I think some personal pride and ego needs to be removed before anything else will improve.

Now word around the campfire is about the major improvements that are supposed to take place next year. Where the money is coming from is still a mystery, but some rumors suggest a group has come in to invest and be a partner in the facility. We'll have to sit and wait to see what comes of it. But if there is in fact a person or group of significant financial ability coming into the picture, I'm sure they will want to see the place run better, and that could effect change in management. Money talks, and it might get loud in that office as a result.

The track is only 18 miles from me,,, I really want to see things get better. I just hope that they will in time.