Posted on 12/1/2020By the Ocean Reef Editorial Team
Squealing tires fight with roaring engines to bring this cacophony of excitement to life! Be there as high octane fills the air at the 53rd Annual Snowball Derby Track Super Late Model Race in Pensacola 12/2 – 12/6! 2020 is no ordinary year, and this is no ordinary Snowball Derby either! Just following his first NASCAR Cup Championship, one of the hottest drivers in the country, Chase Elliot, will once again be on the grid at the Snowball! The list of racing greats who have attempted to conquer the Snowball Derby, including some of the best of all-time: Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Bobby Allison, Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Red Farmer… the list goes on and on! Not to mention track champions Noah Gragson, Christian Eckes, Kyle Busch, and local legend Johanna Long-Robbins. Just more reasons you'll want to be there in person to see the white knuckle action.
Just a short hour drive West down our beloved beach road Highway 98, past the tranquil, rustling sea oats, there is a not so quiet place called 5 Flags Speedway. One more flag and we might be talking about rollercoasters for kids; fortunately for us, they kept it to five and created a place for locals and vacationers to enjoy motorsports! Known and loved by automotive enthusiasts, this prestigious park is centered on an asphalt half-mile oval track with 55 feet turns at 15-degree banking, 48 feet straights at 9-degrees, and a full-service pit area.
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Short-track racing comes in many shapes sizes. Essentially cars are purpose-built and set up to compete, turning in the same direction for the majority of the race. The level of camaraderie in this style of racing is unparalleled. Teams often help each other out in the pits exchanging parts, knowledge, and friendship. It's not so much who wins or loses but the thrill of the minor modifications and tweaks; every driver is racing against himself to be a little better and a little faster. The racing is loud and very exciting, watching every lap unfold, cars become mangled, and the winner is never really totally clear until the very end!
Super Pro Late Model racing represents the very upper echelon of short track racing. It's seen as the gateway to the larger world of professional racing - much in the same way as minor league baseball is the stairway to the major leagues. The cars are maxed out with 600+ naturally aspirated horsepower, V8 engines, scientific steering geometry designed to operate at 100% even when it's turned almost permanently at 30 degrees. Every possible improvement to the car has been made to put all the focus square on the driver. The cars are more aerodynamic and faster in a circle than just about any vehicle on the planet, short of a NASA centrifuge.
Don't miss this year's running of the Snowball Derby! Ocean Reef Resorts, one of the proud sponsors of husband and wife dual-threat Hunter Robbins and Johanna Long-Robbins cars in the Snowball and Snowflake, respectively, offers a full field of Destin vacation rentals just a few miles East of this incredible Pensacola racing event. Visit us for a vacation anytime, or get your reservations on the books for next year's Snowball!
The Ocean Reef Editorial Team leads the market in vacation rental, real estate, and coastal lifestyle content, with decades of Destin & 30A expertise behind every story. As the area's largest locally owned and longest continually operating vacation rental company, we welcome over 200,000 guests each year and reach millions who dream of the beach. Our guides serve travelers, homeowners, and locals alike, sharing authentic knowledge you can trust-because this coast isn't just where we work, it's where our story began, and where we'll continue to welcome generations to come.
