Da Groj

Check out the S.E. corner of Sligh Ave. and Anderson Rd. in Tampa. A huge paved lot with nothing in the middle. The two office buildings toward the East end are for the St. Pete times. There is a sign advertising the property for sale, so I don't know if the Times owns it or some other commercial realty company. It is very sandy/dusty, but it is big enough.

I feel like someone has mentioned this one before... maybe Scott? I don't remember if anybody ever got past the "looking at it" stage, though. Anybody want to check into it?

If that's the lot I'm thinking of, it's been inspected. The surface is terrible, remnants of metal poles and concrete slabs sticking up. Very rough pavement - worse than Lakeland. LOTS of sand.
It's huge, but...

Ruled it out before even bothering to figure out who owned it.

Native wrote:If that's the lot I'm thinking of, it's been inspected. The surface is terrible, remnants of metal poles and concrete slabs sticking up. Very rough pavement - worse than Lakeland. LOTS of sand.
It's huge, but...

Ruled it out before even bothering to figure out who owned it.

Probably the same lot. Couldn't see the metal pole remnants from outside the gate driving by at 35mph. Definitely saw the sand. Ah, and the search continues.

Thanks for keeping an eye out, just the same!

I think that and another nearby space are used to store new cars on their way to dealers -- I've seen lots of cars parked there before.

^^^ Yep. There's a huge lot across Sligh...it has numerous railroad tracks to it, and in fact was full of cars the day Shon Sparks and I visited the lot.

Native wrote:^^^ Yep. There's a huge lot across Sligh...it has numerous railroad tracks to it, and in fact was full of cars the day Shon Sparks and I visited the lot.

I was just looking at the area on street view and the lot to the north has a leasing sign from CSX. As it happens, one of my old buddies from high school is a big wig with CSX's Florida region. If you think it may be worth it, I can take a stab at reaching out to him concerning the property they apparently own.

^^^ missed your post, Ron, sorry.
Haven't seen the north lot. If it's anything like the south one, no thanks.

Sunshine Speedway is now back open, if you park in the track and autocross in the pit parking lot it is actually a pretty decent course.

blacksheep-1 wrote:Sunshine Speedway is now back open, if you park in the track and autocross in the pit parking lot it is actually a pretty decent course.

Are we talking about the same facility?
Sunshine Speedway

Or have they added a really big parking lot since that satellite image was taken?

I can't remember, has anyone brought up Andersen RacePark down in Palmetto? Sure it's mainly a kart track, but have recently heard of someone doing a track event there in their car. It's plenty wide enough to setup some chicago boxes, change the line of corners and such. The front stretch should even be plenty wide enough for a....slalom. Might be pricy, but could be a lot of fun for one or two events a year. http://andersenracepark.com/Facility.aspx

Andersen RacePark is also available to rent for private testing of both karts and cars, as well as for private events...

We ran a couple events there when they first built the place. Last I heard, the county wasn't allowing them to run cars there due to noise restrictions.

It really is more of a "track event" kind of place than an "autocross" place. Not a lot of run-off for a car. But, if someone wants to check pricing and availability, we might consider it again. My guess is that since they do healthy kart business on the weekends, it would probably only be available to us during the week.

Looking at their schedule, most of their actual "events" are on week nights and the weekends are open racing or track rental. I'll give them a buzz.

shakedown067 wrote:Looking at their schedule, most of their actual "events" are on week nights and the weekends are open racing or track rental. I'll give them a buzz.

^ that place looks awesome.

It's expensive. Email sent to Loren and Steven! Anyone want to do a weekday event? LOL

buddy bodean wrote:

shakedown067 wrote:Looking at their schedule, most of their actual "events" are on week nights and the weekends are open racing or track rental. I'll give them a buzz.

^ that place looks awesome.

This!

shakedown067 wrote:Email sent to Loren and Steven!

No email received.

I got mine!


I'll forward it to you later.

Although I wouldn't be opposed to it, I 'd be surprised if they allow something like that. It's really a kart track and the only cars used there is for their smaller open-wheeled race cars for testing. (Think Star Mazda and Indy Lights.) I've seen karts disappear into the woods on the outside of turn one, so it likely wouldn't meet the minimum for our insurance requirements. Also, since Andersen purchased the track a few years ago, they've made a lot of upgrades and get picky when karts run beyond the curbing. Oh, and as fun as the track is, they're kart rentals are even on the expensive side.