FSF race circa 1980's (Pic)

[fastforward]

Before there was CFR SCCA Autocross racing, there was the GTE Challenge at the Florida State Fairgrounds. Our same stretch of pavement once was the front straight. Infact you can still make out the checkered start/finish line out at the autocross races today. Fellow TR member, Tacdout had these pics laying in a showbox somewhere, I thought they might be of interest to anyone that cares.
:)

[sloaccord]

i care! awesome.

[Muddy]

I was told that it used to be a race course. It is nice to see proof. :D

[oilleak]

So were's the rest of the course?

[Chin]

Yeah, I want to run that!

[PseudoRealityX]

Originally posted by oilleak
So were's the rest of the course?

That road you drive in on.... the first "turn-in" where we usually have the finish.....that was pit row, as you can see in the pic. If you go beyond the tight hairpin we do on the south side of the course, you can see the "track" flow out into the wooded area.

[OversteerS2K]

fastforward, any more pics?

[fastforward]

Yeah there is only one more that I have....I got sidetracked lastnight and forgot to post it. It appears to be cars lined up in the starting grid. These images were taken from some bleechers by Tacdout when he was like 11 years old. :D
This would be shot was taken facing torwards where the white SCCA support track truck is usually parked now along with the timing tent. Pretty cool, wish I had a arial image or a track loyout map. Would be kind of neat to look for the old track within the parking lots and access roads. Haha!

[fastforward]

Sorry they are so freakin small! I tried to resize them so that they would fit in the 125kb range to be able to post here, but everytime I tried to submit it, it would come back as my file size being too large!
This is the only size/resolution I could get posted up in this forum for some reason! Whats up with that???!!

[w0rd]

Here is the aerial.

[neurovish]

I should have a program somewhere from one of those races...

[fastforward]

whoah..baddass! Does anyone know the track route among all those roads?

[w0rd]

FF: Try reducing the quality of the image instead of the size. Or e-mail them to me. jeremy813@hotmail.com

[fastforward]

let me see if this comes out bigger.

[fastforward]

one more time.

[fastforward]

Originally posted by w0rd
FF: Try reducing the quality of the image instead of the size. Or e-mail them to me. jeremy813@hotmail.com

Yeah tried that, thanks though wOrd. I was trying to clean up the image a bit in Photoshop Elements. I guess just sticking 'em in there made the files too big. The last ones I posted are from the original unaltered scans that were emailed to me. They worked, at least I can see 'em.

[w0rd]

I would guess the course goes like this...
Cool pics BTW.

[fastforward]

Found this on the net. Heres the link:

http://www.sptimes.com/News/060201/Sports/Groups_moot_Tampa_CAR.shtml

[Tacdout]

Yes, I took those pics sometime in the mid 80's I think. I think that Castrol Jaguar won if I recall correctly. I also remember the Nissans being very popular that year.

[Tacdout]

Also, They stopped using that facility for racing because of noise complaints by area residents.

[fastforward]

Originally posted by Tacdout
Yes, I took those pics sometime in the mid 80's I think. I think that Castrol Jaguar won if I recall correctly. I also remember the Nissans being very popular that year.

Races ran at FSF from 1988 to 1990 until local residents shut it down. Crybabies. :roll:
Yeah, that Nissan was badass. It was cleaning up on everyone in it's class on a consistant basis back then.

[Leonard]

People crying about that stuff and shutting it down pisses me off. It's the fairgrounds. You know there's going to be events tha make noise (fair, concerts, races)... if you don't want to deal with the noise, why would you choose to live near the fairgrounds.
I'm sure that someone will say it's not these people's choice because they didn't pick where the fairgrounds was built. But really, the fairgrounds has been at that location for over 35 years (http://www.floridastatefair.com/history.asp?page=fair)

[PseudoRealityX]

the worst is people complaining about airports...

That happened back home in Naples. People move in, then complain about a 40 year old airport making too much noise. People are so fucking stupid.

[Bill]

Damn, I knew that there was some racing organizations that used to run at the fairgrounds but I never knew that it was on that type of scale. Good god, could you imagine how nice it would be if CART had actually been able to race there for the 2003 season? I mean, the whole area would have to be repaved and setup, autocrossing there would be damned sweet. Damned residents and their bullshit...:mad::mad::mad::mad:

[fastforward]

I'd imagine that the GTE Challenge was televised in some sort of capacity in those 3 years it was run. I'd love to see the footage. Especially of there is any "incar" cam footage. That would be cool. I couldn't find much if any onfo about the races on the web. Just some lap times and point standings or something.

[robofunc]

People's stupidity will never cease to amaze me. Like the idiots now who are complaining about the noise that St. Pete. International airport is making.

"Hey, who snuck this airport in here?! Get rid of it now!"

[quicksilver EK]

IMSA rules ! wish the still ran that race there

[0HP930]

The 1.8-mile track was built for the World Challenge of Tampa, an event featuring GTP prototype cars and sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association. Neighbors voiced concerns about unbearable decibel levels from the event before the first race in 1988 and last race in 1990.

"It was horrible, very bad," said Janice Davis, who lives in the nearby King's Forest neighborhood and attended Thursday's meeting. "There's no barrier between the neighborhood and this fairgrounds. The noise level is very high."
It looks to me like we need to organize a little TP party for this bitch's yard.

Its whiney assholes like this that are destroying automotive venues all across the country.

If she took the time out of her day to attend the meeting to poo poo on the evil sound of hi-po engines then I think we should take some time out of our day to return the favor. :evil2:

[oilleak]

You suggesting late night burnouts infront of her house?

[fastforward]

Originally posted by oilleak
You suggesting late night burnouts infront of her house?
hahahaha! :evil:

[marksaccord95]

i went to one in the mid-late 80s when they still had it.

[Leonard]

You had to be just a wee little timmay back then...