Sharaby is part of a group of car enthusiasts who race their own souped-up Porsches, Lamborghinis and other high-performance cars once a month at West Palm's Moroso Motorsports Park. Sharaby recently sold his $40,000 twin turbo Toyota Supra, which had another $30,000 in upgrades, and bought a Porsche to race.
RACING SCHOOLS. For those who don't own their own hot rods, at least five auto-racing schools offer single- or multiple-day courses geared to the exec with a need for speed. Orlando trial lawyer Bud Kirk spent half a day behind the wheel of a 600-hp Winston Cup-style stock car at the Walt Disney World Speedway, which participates in the Richard Petty Driving Experience courses. Kirk's firm represented Dale Earnhardt's widow in the controversy over the driver's autopsy photos last year.
PAYING THE PRICE. For $350, aspiring Andrettis get a three-hour lesson, including classroom, in-car and on-track instruction; $700 gets you an all-day course; and for the serious race-car-driver wannabes, there's a three-day program for $1,199. Kirk says driving eight laps around a pro track at speeds up to 125 mph was "first-class." But then there's the liability waiver. "I'm a lawyer. I've dealt with releases all my life," says Kirk. "I've never seen any release like this, and I wouldn't advise anybody to sign it." He did.
Florida Race Schools
-- FinishLine Racing School, Edgewater
-- Justin Bell GT Motorsports Experience, West Palm Beach
-- Panoz Racing School, Sebring
-- Cale Yarborough Executive Racing School, Lakeland
-- Richard Petty Driving Experience, offered at Daytona International Speedway, Homestead Miami Speedway and Walt Disney World Speedway
Au Naturel
Florida is leading a nationwide trend in back-to-basics golf course design. Gone are man-made waterfalls, lush flowerbeds and heavily landscaped greens. "It's more of an effort to try to keep and maintain the natural look, so the course doesn't look totally contrived, but rather like it's been there forever," says Kory Williams, an architect with Arnold Palmer's golf course design company, Palmer Course Design Co. in Ponte Vedra Beach. The natural look is akin to what you'd find on courses on the coast of England, Scotland and other parts of Europe. In Europe, it's a budget factor, while in Florida, says Williams, it's as much an issue of drought and environmental concerns as cost.
SEAL OF APPROVAL. Golf pro Greg Norman relied on the palette Mother Nature provided in designing Shark's Tooth Golf Club. The Lake Powell course, the centerpiece of the planned Wild Heron residential community, opened last month. Located on the largest dune lake in north Florida, the course has the advantage of a beautiful natural landscape with natural elevations and plenty of native loblolly pines and live oaks. The course carries an Audubon Signature designation, one of only five statewide.
Golf Course Trends
-- Saltwater tolerant grasses like Seashore Passpalum
-- Natural vegetation that attracts birds and other types of wildlife
-- Environmental preservation
2002 Grand Openings
As of Dec. 31, 2001, there were 31 golf courses under construction in Florida. Twenty-nine were part of real estate developments. It's no secret that golf courses sell real estate, and developers are quick to sign up top designers who draw the big bucks when it comes to property prices and golf club memberships. Membership fees at a Jack Nicklaus-designed course can run from $50,000 to $200,000, with annual dues ranging from $7,200 to $15,000.
A few course grand openings slated for this year and the golf all-stars who designed them:
Mediterra, Naples: Tom Fazio (January)
Lakewood Ranch, Sarasota: Arnold Palmer (February)
Shark's Tooth, Lake Powell: Greg Norman (March)
Ritz-Carlton Golf and Spa, Jupiter: Jack Nicklaus (October)
Boating Facts
-- Florida ranks third in the U.S. in recreational boat ownership, after Michigan (1) and California (2), with 840,684 boats in 2000.
-- Boat sales in Florida for 2000 totaled more than $900 million.
-- Florida hosts at least three major boat shows each year in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa. Exhibitors/visitors at this year's Miami International Boat Show in February matched last year's at 142,000 visitors, both trade and consumer, and 2,300 exhibitors.