| Charlotte County Owner Sends Message To Florida Race Fans | Staff Report
 Charlotte County Speedway owner LeRoy Davidson is the only current track owner in Florida who actually built the track he runs. He opened the Punta Gorda race track in 1990, on a song and a prayer. He managed somehow, and to some people's dismay to make it work. The riveting story of the speedway has been told elsewhere on KARNAC, more than once.
Now the speedway once again is in the news. When the track celebrates the New Year with it's Annual Eve of Destruction and New Years Day Enduro, it will enter the the last phase of it's current history. The track's lease with the Charlotte County Airport Authority expires in March 2008.
There has been talk that the track may change hands soon, as Davidson weighs the merits of letting someone else try their hand in the last year of its current lease. If that happens, and it is big if, there will certainly be an infusion of energy that track management changes always brings.
But we are of the opinion that if Florida racing were to see LeRoy Davidson walk away from the sport, it would be diminished greatly. LeRoy Davidson is a man who sees things a little differently than most people do. Dealing with LeRoy Davidson can be exasperating at times, but somehow his inner drive to overcome impossible odds always seems to shine through at the right times, and quite often magic happens.
We hope if LeRoy does indeed turn over the reins of his speedway to another promoter, that he spends his racing energies wisely in the area of race promotions, of which he has considerable talent when he is able to focus his energy.
LeRoy Davidson recently wrote the following on the Florida Stock Car Racing Message Forum:
"Just to let everyone know, there is an offer on the table to buy the remaining 1 1/2-year lease out. The deadline has been extended to this Friday, December 15, 2006, at midnight. We were hoping to do it by last Friday so we could announce it on our last night along with the new schedule and rule changes, mostly for the Road Warrior Crate Motors and Super Stock Intake. But circumstances beyond our control held up doing that last Friday. I would like everyone to know that the track is still going to be operating at least until April 1, 2008. No, this is NOT an April Fool's joke, it just happens to be the end of the current lease.
Personally, I feel the race track will be there another 20 years, but if people bid more than I'm already paying, they will go broke in 6 months. The Airport needs to take into consideration: a lot of money for a short time, or a fair amount for 20 years. I have been there for 20 years now, even when I was gone for four years, I still had 51% of the stock, and that is a record they should look at instead of some of these dreamers that say "If I had CCS I would show them how it's done". I only have this to say: I was gone from 1996 till 2000, and there was a total of 23 different people who changed hands during that time, and they all knew how they would change racing. But one by one, they are all gone. I'm not saying I'm the only one who can run a race track, but I may be admitting that I'm the only one stupid enough to stay!
I would also like to say if I do stay again, you will see a BIG DIFFERENCE in our weekly show, and our regular divisions and regular racers. I probably have not slept 2 hours per night thinking about how I'm letting down racing in general by not doing this last year at CCS. All tracks need to work to keep racing alive. On the other hand, if I do sell out, the other people also may have something for you.
While I'm on here, I'd like to give a small example of why I feel it's time for me to go. When you have half the tracks in Florida doing things to hurt the other half the tracks, it will NEVER work. So I feel I'm wasting everyone's time trying to get the tracks to work together. Even if I do sell CCS, I intend to continue on trying to make a difference, not only in Florida but all over. That is what my goal is, not to keep one track open (CCS), but to try to help some others that have the same problem. The Florida tracks that are willing to work together are Ocala, Citrus, Auburndale, and Charlotte County. We meet often and are genuinely concerned for everyone. The others, New Smyrna, Orlando, Desoto, and Lake City, have no plans of working with any of us. They are out for themselves. Desoto, for instance, has taken last year and some of this year's LLM dates on the last Saturday of each month, which I've had for the past 5 years, just to cause people to have to choose which one to go to, when they could have taken one of the other three weeks a month so the cars could go to both places. Also, I have had the Eve of Destruction since 1991, and last year Desoto messed with that, plus giving free entry fees. We all know how John charges for everything, all except trying to steal my show by letting people race for no entry fee. One more thing, I had 3 Florida 500 Sprint Car shows, and all were a FULL HOUSE in the stands and 40 + cars in the pits. I only stopped those races because of the past shareholders' intervention. John tried to steal that idea, but only had the guts for 400 laps, and it seems he failed at that. Also what I'm saying is that until we all (or whoever owns a race track) start sharing their ideas to help each other be successful, we will all fail and it will be another "lost drive-in" ending.
I just want everyone to know that if I do sell, I will still be around to help racing, even to tracks I don't know. Last week, I was on a show with 3 New York tracks sharing things we can do to help each other. Why was I talking to 3 New York tracks when we can't get Florida tracks to work together? Answer is, once the tracks see us being more successful, maybe they will join us. Till then, bring back all the locals to their home tracks and stop supporting the travelling series' that steal our weekly shows. Traveling series' won't have a place to go if we all lose our weekly car counts and shut down! So SUPPORT LOCAL RACING AND LOCAL DRIVERS, OR IT'S OVER!!"
That, race fans is vintage LeRoy Davidson, one of the actors who will be long remembered as one Florida's most interesting people when he finally does leave the stage.
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-KARNAC Staff Report
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