History
Festival of Speed was originally called Festivus after the legendary holiday from Seinfeld! Not many people know this - in fact there are only a handful of people who know the true history of this epic event. In 2000 some friends and I got tired of racing in 'circles in parking lots' and decided that we wanted to do something bigger than ourselves - we wanted to race for a cause and in some way give back to the community. Specifically those friends were David Reilly, Craig Duxbury and John Salmons - together we were referred to as 'the dot heads' or 'floridaracing dot sit' or 'net net dot net' - technically the team was Team FloridaRacing.net but that didn't really seem to matter. Our mission was to raise funds for charities including Mustard Seed, Luekemia Society, Russell Home and Big Brothers / Big Sisters.
Our team of misfits started to grow but we attracted very few racers - Kenny Tabazaka was the first but he left shortly after he started. The only other racer was a kid I coached named Hugo - super Hugo - phenom who finished top 10 at an NRC race in the first year of being a cat. 2. Instead we attracted a lot of people who liked to ride their bikes in support of a community cause but didn't have the experience or desire to race. Many great people joined our ranks during this time - Candace Parker, Staci Zoppetti, Vince Smith, Paul Strader, Landon Larkey, Mike Bewley, Giti Khalsa, John Salmons, Craig Duxbury, David Reilly, Kim Buttar, Anne Bedinger, Eric Antalek and of course Florence Smith. Many of these riders came from the Luekemia Society Team in Training group where I was the cycling coach of just got roped in because they made eye contact with me.
In those days a USCF cycling team was obligated to promote 1 event a year, so it was up to me to figure out what to do. As we got closer and closer to having to promote a race Vince Smith made it very clear that he was excited about racing and wanted to be part of the planning of our event. It's safe to say that without Vince being in that role there would be no Festival of Speed. I made a flyer, called the race Festival of Speed - A Festivus for the Rest of Us but it was Vince who asked all of the right questions - what do we need? when do we need it? how do we get it? More importantly than that it was Vince who connected us with one of the key players and 'silent' benefactors of Festival of Speed: Bob Lipscomb and the Williams Company. As we started planning the race, I still remember Giti, Stacy, Dave Reilly, Craig, Candace and a few others sitting on the brown couch at my house talking about this cool race that we were going to do. I distinctly remember I kept going on and on about check ceremonies for our charities before the pro, 1, 2 race, a VIP ride, motorpaced sprints and only god knows what else while Giti kept saying, 'we should keep this thing small and prove ourselves first'.
It was around this time I was approached by a very good friend, Brett Park. He wanted to have a downtown Orlando bike race, where the Orlando cycling community shared in the work load. An entirely noble vision that he managed to share with a lady named Mary Alicia Johnson who worked for the City of Orlando. Brett asked me to come to a race planning meeting - so I skipped out of work and went with him. In about 30 seconds I realized no one in the room had much experience in how to run a cycling event. Towards the end of the 45 minute meeting Brett and I suggested that Mary Alicia come to our race the following weekend - it was called Festival of Speed. The idea was to give her a tour and show her how an event worked from ground zero. We agreed that the Sunday event in Winter Park would be the easiest for her to get to and more crowd friendly as it was a criterium.
Thanks to the generosity of Bob Lipscomb (whom I still hadn't met) and the work of many many people toiling away in obscurity we pulled together and the Inaugural Festival of Speed was born on March 10, 2001. The first race was a circuit race at Bay Lake (obscure location in Lake County). It was incredible!!! I still remember covering the first 40 miles of the Pro, 1, 2 race in 1:20 minutes - I cracked on the 16th lap. But the most memorable part about the day was meeting a tall lanky dude driving a convertible classic car - Bob Lipscomb. Dave Reilly and I hung out with him during the day and got to know him and agreed that he was a cool guy. After arriving at the venue at 5:00 am and running the event and racing in the Pro, 1, 2 and then breaking down the event - Dave and I found ourselves at the Sunday venue in Winter Park at 11:00 pm at night getting ready to setup for the next day. (Keep in mind this is typical for a race weekend.)
The next morning Reilly lined up at the line of the 30+ race and decide to win, Bob Lipscomb happened to be watching the race and I happened to be announcing. After the win and the whole weekend Bob liked what he saw so much so that he joined the team, then the board of directors and decided to sponsor the team and gave us our identity - the Orange W. Mary Alicia saw the race and said simply, 'this is what I want downtown.' We said 'ok'.
It was shortly after that when Jeannine Starr (then Mack) got the board together and said, 'we should really do our race downtown next year, the city really wants to do it.' The board voted yes and bingo and just like that the race moved downtown. As we planned it I asked Mary Alicia what they wanted to call the race and she asked if we could keep on calling it Festival of Speed, we said 'sure.' It was at this junction that our newest teammate entered the equation - the Central Florida Sports Commission. Unsure of what to expect we sort of went with the flow and much to our pleasant surprise these guys were the Ying to our Yang. They relieved our team of many tasks that their professionals could take care of while our team provided the knowledge and expertise to run a bike race and the City provided resources.
FloridaRacing.net, Central Florida Sports Commission and the City of Orlando joined forces to take Festival of Speed to an entirely new level. In fact FOS is the only race that has ever achieved the prestigious National Racing Calendar status in it's 2nd year. That could not have been possible without the generous support, resources and endless hours of dedication from many people (on all three teams) who selflessly poured themselves into this event every single year. The amount of sheer work it takes to put on a race of this size and the endless list of tasks that must be resolved is almost incomprehensible. As the venue became more complex so did the tasks associated with the coordination of those tasks - a truly incredible effort on the parts of so many people. In 2002 just shutting down the area around Lake Eola was akin to climbing Mount Everest! The 2004 and 2005 courses are a testament to the skill and ability of the partners, particularly CFSC.
As the race progressed from 2002 and beyond and started taking on a life of its own it became exponentially more difficult to acknowledge all of the people who made the final vision come to fruition. Knowing that people who should be thanked will inevitably be overlooked by mistake is simply reality. With that said I think it is critical to thank key members of the teams that made (and continue to make) this event what it is.
John Saboor, Brent Nelson, Todd Hess and Pete Sherrard will always be the buffers for me with this event. Each has their role at the Central Florida Sports Commission that they perform with excellence but to get ready for this event these four guys (and the whole team at the office) consistently pulled out their A game. Without the leadership and education provided by John and his team to the city officials, downtown development board and numerous other entities there would be no desire to have a race downtown. Without Pete being the 'go to guy' there simply wouldn't be a race. A tireless and ever optimistic person, Pete was and still is the glue behind the scenes. Todd may be the most important guy on race day because he gives the riders their money!
Bob, Vince, Petey, Cathy, Candace, Janice, Jenny, Dr. Dave, Bill, Giti, Gary, Zimm, DJ, Richard, Benj, Earlene, Wendy, Craig, Landon, Bewley, Zo, the late David Binns, Flo and so many past and current teammates made each version of the race more incredible than the year before.
I want to thank each person who was, is and will be involved with Festival of Speed, for playing such an important role. At the next event I urge each participant and spectator to seek out race personnel and thank them for making such a stellar effort. I assure you it will be greatly appreciated.
Zahid A. Buttar
Founder - Festival of Speed
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