Auburndale Speedway — Local services in Auburndale

Race fans ain't like nobody else. Come Saturday night, you can keep your peace and quiet. Set us in some bleachers, overlooking the asphalt rink of the stock car roller derby. Hell yeah!

Racing. It just plain gets in your blood. Welded to your chassis. Belted in tight. Race fans will trek a whole lotta miles, if necessary, to spend the night with strangers. Strangers, who, like us, crave the smell of rubber, radiators and flaming fumes.

Auburndale Speedway has been a trek destination of mine for a few years now. Oh say, since 1977-ish. That's a helluva lot of busted up race cars, spins, smoke and temper tantrums. All of a sudden, I wasn't able to attend. For this reason, or for that reason. Non-sense reasons. And that, is a pity. I really really missed it. But I'm back. And it's like I never ever stopped going. Picking up right where I left off!

The parking lot. The ticket windows. The gate. The gatekeepers. The grandstands. The concession stand. The bathrooms (gotta go, ya know?). The track. The cars.

Best of all, the intoxicating sound of those high revving engines. Screaming and popping, practicing on the track. It's loud. Real loud. Real music to a race fan's ears. A rock concert of speed.

Everything was there. I was there. I sat where I always sit! (Race fans love their spots!). I ate 'race food'. Burger, fries and a foam cup of fizzy pop. Soda to some. Boiled peanuts. Biting into that saltwater brine.

It was a perfect night for racing. It was a perfect night OF racing. While a misty drizzle tickled at us, we were wowed by a rainbow. Pointing to that pot of gold on Turn 4. We knew that was no threat. We knew we were going racing!

It was a perfect race crowd. Kids running around looking at everything but the races. Teens playing Frisbee in the side yard. Old men, alone and bundled up in their Chevy race jackets. Young couples, with babies, starting a new batch of race fans. Fueled up fans with foamy beers and go team cheers. The 'we stand for the wreck worriers'.

Every race saw quite a bit of drama. Spills and thrills. Rubber donut decorated doors. Flopping hoods and finger pointing. Spins and wins. I'd say we got WAY more than we paid admission for. A whole lot more.

I'm a fan of Auburndale Speedway. It has a lot of character. It has a whole lot of CHARACTERS!

IF we lose another racetrack, we lose another piece of our hearts. We can't let that happen! Track owners could save themselves a lot of stress, and money, by throwing away the keys and just walking away. It's OUR job to keep these tracks alive!

WHAT happens if we have NO races to go to. NONE. Anywhere. I don't even want to think about...

This was my first time here. Entry fee was good, concession was also good. However, the racing not so good. There was some decent racing however it only lasted at most 3 laps if lucky. I was there for an hour and 40 minutes and was not able to watch more than 3 laps of racing without a crash. In the time frame I was there I was able to watch 1 full race and 11 laps of another before I gave up and left.

I would bet that is was an off night and may give it another chance. Although a person I spoke with said this is common. I have a hard time believing the track owners would allow this type of racing to occur every weekend. Seemed that quite a few ofthe drivers in the late model class had some issues with each other. Evident by the several spin outs and an angry driver that turned his car around to damage the car of the driver that spun him out. After 10 minutes or so of track cleanup, the race restarted, made a full lap before another spinout. Again, I'd like to think this isn't the norm, so I think I will try again...

Great place for a fun night of racing and demolitions. Traffic was horrible, and they couldn't get the cars parked fast enough, and we missed the first 45 minutes of the show because of it. I would definitely give it another try and not go just because of the traffic, I would suggest getting there early. The show was amazing, but the speakers were horrible. It was muffled, and you couldn't even hear what they were saying. We had a very hard time finding our assigned seats because the rows were not numbered. Thank goodness for other people telling us what row they were sitting in so we could find ours. Now for food and drinks. You would think that with a sold our show, they would make sure they had enough beer, napkins, and water. Michelob Ultra sold out by half time, no napkins for food at half time, and 12 bottles of water left at half time. WTH people! You have a sold-out show! So we got Budweiser at half time, and it was not even cold. Yuk! So we ate our food and wiped our hands...