Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The 2004 CCS/Formula USA Race of Champions (ROC) scheduled for October 20-24 at Daytona International Speedway will not take place at the “World Center of Racing” and will instead be moved to Homestead-Miami Speedway in south Florida.

Daytona and Homestead are both owned by International Speedway Corporation (ISC).

A large-scale construction project (scheduled to begin mid-summer and extend through December 2004) to install a new over-sized-vehicle access tunnel and renovate the entire paddock at Daytona forced the Race of Champions event to be moved.

While the Daytona banking and infield road course will not be directly affected during the construction, the only buildings in the paddock that will be left standing will be the media center and the infield care center, making it impossible to house the CCS/F-USA competitors.

Sources within CCS/Formula USA indicated that the 2004 Race of Champions will be moved to Homestead; those sources did not specify a date but did say a formal announcement of the move is expected as soon as today.

The Team Hammer Advanced Riding School, which traditionally has been the first event of the five-day ROC weekend, will also move to Homestead.

Daytona International Speedway spokesman Andrew Booth pointed out that all of the manufacturer demo rides and displays normally located in front of the Speedway during the Race of Champions are scheduled to return as always to support “Biketoberfest” in Daytona Beach.

Booth did not know if or how the paddock construction would affect the annual Dunlop motorcycle tire test, traditionally held at Daytona in early December.