Ocala Making Switch, Returning To Dirt

By John Clayton
Staff Writer

For nearly two solid weeks, Michael Peters, owner and promoter of Ocala (Fla.) Speedway, watched truck after truck rumble in and out of his track, delivering the future in clouds of dust.
Some 350 truck loads of clay were part of an extensive project that returned Ocala Speedway to its roots as a Central Florida dirt track. In operation since 1952, Ocala has been known by several names, including Zuber, Marion and Lightning speedways, and spent most of that time with a clay surface until it was paved in 1997.
This year, the clay is back. So, too, Peterson hopes, will be the fans and the cars.
“I’d like to see a significant spike in grandstand attendance,” said Peters. “I feel like the show is back on at Ocala Speedway. We’re really trying to put together the total package in terms of the fan-entertainment level.”
Peterson was formerly an asphalt racer himself and had no plans on changing the track’s surface back to clay when he bought the facility several years ago, but several factors changed his mind.
Fan attendance and car counts were among his concerns, but the bottom line was simply that Ocala’s D-shaped three-eighths-mile track did not lend itself to good asphalt racing.
“We ended up with a lot of follow-the-leader type racing,” Peters said. “We never had a lot of two- and three-wide racing and that’s what fans wanted to see.”

TESTING IT OUT: Jeff Choquette powers through turn during during a practice session at Ocala Speedway. (Ricky Ellison/Gearhead Photos Photo)

After doing some research in the area, Peters decided the switch had to happen, despite the “easily six figures” price tag that came along with it.
First, clay outside of Florida’s gritty, tire-chewing mix had to be found, trucked in and spread.
Where did it come from?
“That’s a big secret,” Peters said.
 The front-straight wall was raised. New equipment to maintain the new track, such as water tankers and packers, had to be bought as well.
“This is 75 percent clay with very little sand in it — it’s the type of clay you can’t even really find up in the Carolinas and around there, so we’re very happy with that,” said Peters, who also widened the track by 10 feet all the way around to ensure more side-by-side racing.
“The shape and the banking (five to eight degrees) are about the same, there’s just more track surface.”
Work on the track alone was a 12-day job, but Peters said he had a lot of help from local drivers, which helped him save a few dollars on the expensive makeover.
With a depressed housing and business construction market in Central Florida as in the rest of the U.S., Peters said several of his regular drivers had time on their hands as well as the know-how and equipment with which to do the work.
“They were real fair with me and I think I was fair with them,” Peters said. “They got to work on their track and it’s something they’re proud of.”
Peters also said fan reaction has been positive.
Ocala, which is known more as a thriving horse country than for horsepower despite its close proximity to Daytona, sits conveniently near Volusia Speedway Park.
The dirt at Ocala runs deeper than the pavement, Peters learned.
“Its roots for so many years have been dirt,” he said. “Fathers raced here, and grandfathers raced here, so we’re not re-inventing the wheel. It’s not like I’m trying to present ice racing to them or something.
“It’s something that was heavy in this community for many, many years… We’re going to take it back to that.”
Peters said he would like to add a World of Outlaws Late Models event as well as some other touring series over the course of the season. One sanctioning body inspected the surface and wanted to open at Ocala, but Peters declined until he learned more about how the track would react to traffic.
“There are some great opportunities presenting themselves now that just wouldn’t have happened for us on asphalt,” Peters said. “We’re running some DIRTcar-sanctioned series here with DIRT Motorsports. We have an AMA motorcyle race scheduled.
“We’re new to maintaining the surface, so we wanted some time grooming the track before we opened up. We wanted to wait before agreeing to something like that.”
Ocala’s first season on dirt in a decade is set to begin Feb. 29 with regular Friday-night shows to follow throughout the season. The Friday dates will give area racers a place to run on Friday nights while not directly competing on the same night with the more-established Volusia and East Bay, which usually run on Saturdays, for fans or drivers.
More than 150 cars showed up for the first of two open tests, and fans, Peters said, trickle in almost daily to take a look at the dirt track they used to know — and that Peters hopes they will get to know again.