I was thinking about this earlier. If one were to live in the tampa or orlando area, you'd be within an afternoon's drive of multiple race tracks; sebring, miami homestead, one up in gainesville. Plus there's a lot of autocrossing going on, and the weather means it's year-round. And cars don't rust out in Florida.
Is there anywhere else that can compare to at least this aspect of Florida, or does the land of meth gators reign supreme?
That location MAY be the best for proximity to good tracks.
Here in the Charleston SC area, we have within a 4 hour drive:
Charlotte
AMP
Road Atlanta
Roebling road
Carolina Motorsports Park
Not too bad either.
The car culture in that area is strong. Check out Andy's build thread to see just how much there is to do car-wise in that area.
I think Charlotte would be a more central location to the venues mentioned by WVU.
Can confirm, there are a lot of car racing opportunities in Florida. But Florida's geography means participating in events OUT of Florida takes a fair bit of travel. I'm not complaining too much. I'm pretty confident I could find some form of motorsport event within 3 hours of home every single weekend of the year.
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
That's what I remember from when we wanted to move to your general area. Almost every weekend there was, within a 3-4 hour drive, autocross, rallycross, track days at a major track or some professional races to watch. Now that I'm looking for a place to move to, it makes it tough since I want all that racing again.
In reply to infinitenexus :
Its a great place for racing! At the beginning of the year, I decided to log all of the motorsports events that I attend, because I knew it was a lot. Here's where I'm at so far:
2023 Races
1/7 crown Vic at freedom factory
1/15 crown Vic rallyx at firm
1/22 Spyder autox st Pete
2/4 lemons Corolla at Barber Alabama
2/18 go kart dirt oval at Throwers
2/25 watched “street car shootout” at BMP
3/4 Overland expo at Firm
3/11 spyder autox and yxz rallyx same day at St Lucie
3/18 RYC Mud park
3/25 watched Crown Vics race at Eastbay
3/26 Firm track day in e36
3/31 Freedom 500 at Freedom Factory
4/15 Florida Gambler 500
4/22 Danger Ranger 9000 on dirt @ Bristol TN
5/6 SXS race in Nates RZR at Just Add Dirt Motorsports, Palatka
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
That sounds like the kind of life I want to live! I'm not a big fan of the direction Florida is going politicially, but I think the motorsports scene is so strong there I might be able to ignore it (assuming house prices stop going skyward)
from Dec to the end of March, yes, the rest of the year, not so much.
The mid atlantic is pretty good too.
In reply to infinitenexus :
Your issue with florida is too many things are going to start infrining on the tracks and you'll start losing them.
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
And that is a big contributing factor as to why we're moving pretty close to you - timeframe TBD. Sorry, I know I'm not helping to make Florida less crowded.
Florida is probably better than many places.
However, when I started racing I lived near Hartford, CT, and from there I traveled pretty easily to:
Lime Rock
Bryar/NHIS
Pocono
Watkins Glen
Bridgehampton (yes, I'm old)
Thompson was weeds when I lived there, not yet resurrected, although I did do the oval there with RCCA.
Later we moved to Atlanta and could then easily get to:
Rd ATL
Atlanta Motor Speedway (once)
TGPR (Little Talledega)
Barber
CMP
Roebling
Charlotte
and VIR, Daytona and Sebring not terribly far.
Now we're near Daytona, and not too far from The FIRM, Roebling and Sebring. Homestead seems to far for me.
I have always felt extremely fortunate to race at many places and feel bad for people who must travel hundreds or thousands of miles to race.
infinitenexus said:I was thinking about this earlier. If one were to live in the tampa or orlando area, you'd be within an afternoon's drive of multiple race tracks; sebring, miami homestead, one up in gainesville. Plus there's a lot of autocrossing going on, and the weather means it's year-round. And cars don't rust out in Florida.
Is there anywhere else that can compare to at least this aspect of Florida, or does the land of meth gators reign supreme?
Northern California...
Laguna Seca
Infineon/Sears Point/Whatever the heck it is now
Thunderhill
Easy access to Reno Sparks. Speedways and other tracks such as Altamont.
Lots of autocross, road rallies, and vintage shows.
Foothill and mountain driving. Easy access to PCH.
Cars rust even less, and they don't get drowned in hurricanes.
The weather's not as nice, but Indianapolis has a bunch of racing industry and options
IMS obviously hosts a bunch of famous events in different series on both the Oval and the road course
Lucas Oil Raceway Park hosts NHRA's most prestigious event, smaller events the rest of the year, and test/tune times open to the public
Putnam Park offers track days and motorcycle events less than an hour away
Multiple autocross groups
PRI show for your motorsports fix in December
Dozens of small dirt and pavement tracks
Within a 4 hr drive you've got Mid-Ohio, NCM, Chicagoland, and Bell Isle
If proximity to racetracks is the defining criteria for being the racing capital of the world I suggest that somewhere around Coventry England may be it. There's around 25 road courses within a 2.5 hour drive and another five or six within a day's travel.
A downside I can see to Florida tracks is that you better really like very flat tracks. Not a lot of hills there.
We just did a sim event at Atlanta Motorsports park, and the elevation variations make the track much more interesting than if it was flat.
Beer Baron said:Northern California...Laguna Seca
Infineon/Sears Point/Whatever the heck it is now
ThunderhillEasy access to Reno Sparks. Speedways and other tracks such as Altamont.
Lots of autocross, road rallies, and vintage shows.
Foothill and mountain driving. Easy access to PCH.
Cars rust even less, and they don't get drowned in hurricanes.
Not to mention the offroad options. I just wish that the autocross venues in the SF Bay area proper hadn't all evaporated.
The problem with any state with a lot of good tracks is when you've been too many times you get bored and end up driving 12 hours or more to other tracks.
Toot said:The problem with any state with a lot of good tracks is when you've been too many times you get bored and end up driving 12 hours or more to other tracks.
Good problem to have 
One aspect of Thunderhill (NorCal) is that it has a pretty crazy potential for various configurations. Add that it is in a hilly area, I could see it being harder to get tired of it compared to other tracks.
https://www.racingcircuits.info/north-america/usa/thunderhill-raceway-park.html
One issue I could see with Northern California is that if you want to go outside California, it's going to be a LONG drive.
In reply to aircooled :
We did the 5 mile configuration.......you need a week to remember all of it or hours on the simulator. Trying to do a fly and drive next spring.
STM317 said:The weather's not as nice, but Indianapolis has a bunch of racing industry and options
IMS obviously hosts a bunch of famous events in different series on both the Oval and the road course
Lucas Oil Raceway Park hosts NHRA's most prestigious event, smaller events the rest of the year, and test/tune times open to the public
Putnam Park offers track days and motorcycle events less than an hour away
Multiple autocross groups
PRI show for your motorsports fix in December
Dozens of small dirt and pavement tracks
Within a 4 hr drive you've got Mid-Ohio, NCM, Chicagoland, and Bell Isle
I'll admit that I know basically nothing about the state of Indiana other than they grow a lot of corn, but this has been rolling around in the back of my mind since you posted it. Coupled with lower prices, I think that makes Indiana/Indianapolis a pretty solid competitor. California is great but who can afford it, and Florida is getting to be that way.
When I left Toledo over 25 years ago I was bummed to be leaving the number of tracks within a few hours drive. We had Waterford Hills, Mid Ohio, Nelsons Ledges, Grattan and MIS within 2.5 hours. Add Putnam Park and IRP with a little more travel time.
Florida has an off season. It just happens to be July and August.
glueguy (Forum Supporter) said:Florida has an off season. It just happens to be July and August.
I autocross all summer here. Some of the clubs do skip a month or two, but not all of them.
I've gotten pretty good at managing the heat. I need to fix the AC in the Miata though.
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