1996 Inaugural Indy 200 Brochure

Ah, remember those exciting days in the mid-nineties when Disney thought it would be a good idea to try and attract a whole new demographic of people to their Florida property?  Can you imagine sitting in on those meetings?  "Hey gang,  there's all those people who like to go to Daytona for races.  What do you think we can do to get them to come and spend money here?"  "What if we built a racetrack in the Magic Kingdom parking lot and then built some whimsical (tacky) inexpensive hotels for them to stay at?"  I worked in Tickets at the Studios during this time.  Conveniently the "Inaugural" race was held in January to also capitalize on the Florida resident ticket specials that Disney still had at that time.  I don't have any insight into how the race went.  The guests, however, were not what Disney hoped for.  I hesitate to stereotype an entire demographic so to be nice we'll say they were very "budget conscious".  They bought the cheap park tickets (if they visited the parks at all, which many chose to not).  They did not treat the new All Star Resort well and from a front line cast perspective they were overall not pleasant to deal with.  The event lasted through 2000 but the track remains.