Orlando owner Ozzy Moya has grown his group of tracks to three, starting with Lakeland Dragstrip in February of 2012. Looking for property to expand his auto and performance parts business, HorsePower Sales of Central Florida, he happened across the property of the closed Lakeland Dragstrip. Ozzy purchased the property and resurrected the overgrown track from its closed status. Lakeland Dragstrip has a growing racer-base with the track's constant improvements. “I'm very blessed that my wife, Maria Moya, supports me with the track efforts. She's not only my wife, she's my partner in life. I am blessed that she backs me when it comes to these ventures of mine.”
In a similar course of history, Moya was previously involved as a major sponsor at Orlando Speed World when the owner, Carl Weisinger, announced that the track was going to close upon his retirement and cease operations in December of 2012. “Carl introduced me to the property owners, and the next thing I know, here I am, owning the land and bought the assets from Carl.” Moya continued, “We immediately jumped in with numerous upgrades to Orlando Speed World, and this year, we just repaved with all new concrete to the 800 foot mark along with grinding it smooth after settling.”
Ozzy continues to tell us of upcoming improvements with the addition of the newly minted IHRA Spring Nitro Nationals. “Orlando Speed World currently seats 7500, but we're buying another 8,000 seats with aggressive plans to have them in place in March for the IHRA Nationals. We are looking forward to hosting a packed house.” Other improvement plans in place include timing system and spectator parking upgrades.
The third motorpsorts facility now under Ozzy’s ownership is South Georgia Motorsports Park. “As a racer, I used to race in the drag radial world and SGMP is a big part of that as well as many other forms of racing. “ Ozzy explained, “There's a sense in investing in my family and all of my employees and racers in general. We're very sportsman minded and I relate to the weekly bracket racers, heads-up guys, muscle car, grudge and import racing. South Georgia Motorsports Park will be a big part of that sportsman focus, as are Lakeland and Orlando Speed World.” Ozzy told us their sportsman focus is paying off; “The racers in Georgia are very good to us, we have been treated great by the racers.”
The future is bright for Ozzy and Maria Moya, as a couple of the most aggressive track owners in the nation right now. “My wife and I are very proud of what we've accomplished in the past few years. It's been interesting to think we are the first Hispanic track owners in the United States - actually owners, not leasing. We have been very conscious to treat all nationalities at the track equally and it has been wonderful that all of the racers have accepted my wife and I so well.”
Ozzy looks at his future optimistically with his IHRA member track involvement between all of his tracks. “With the IHRA Spring Nitro Nationals, IHRA Pro-Am events and the IHRA Team Finals moving to South Georgia Motorports Park next year, I see a great partnership to grow even more between our tracks and the IHRA.
Orlando and South Georgia will also host Summit Pro-Am Tour events in 2016. Dates for those events will be released soon. For more information on Orlando Speed World, the track's website is www.raceosw.com.
