For the past 18 years the World Street Nationals always has been held on Halloween weekend at Carl Weisinger’s Orlando Speed World Dragway. The event has been the ultimate race for fast doorslammers. This year the date was changed and the WSN was run as part of the traditional “Night of Fire” at the Orlando, Florida, track.
 
The race traditionally features big fields of cars, all running heads-up in four classes, and that format draws cars from both coasts, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe.  The fans and racers have always turned out in droves to watch the biggest doorslammer race on the east coast…until 2011.

Mid-season this year, Weisinger shocked the street car community by announcing that he was cancelling the 2011 race. Then, after a few weeks, he announced that he was going to schedule an import race on the original WSN weekend and move the WSN to be a part of his 22nd annual “Night of Fire” Nov. 18-19. [Ed Note: you can read the two interviews in DRO to know Mr. Weisinger’s reasons for changing the date.]

How’d that work for him?  From my point of view, not too good.

Only 47 cars showed up to race in the heads-up classes, way down from the over 200 cars that showed up in years past.  A Quick 32 bracket class bought the car count up to 79, but still the pits looked like a ghost town compared to the number of cars the race has attracted in the past. 

But the racing was good.