Tyrese Gibson (L) and Cody Walker who’ll appear at Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida on March 1, 2025. Credit: Photo c/o Valerie Zucker
Don’t get a ticket driving there, but close to a 1,000 streetrace cars are set to drift over to Tampa this spring for the first Tampa iteration of “Fuelfest.”

After throwing down in cities like West Palm Beach, Los Angeles, Tokyo, London and Abu Dhabi, the car festival comes to Florida State Fairgrounds this spring—with “Fast & Furious” actors Tyrese Gibson and Cody Walker set to appear, too.

A press release says, “The FuelFest drift pits are open access, allowing fans to get up close to their favorite race cars and see what these amazing machines are all about.” It adds that more than 800 custom and exotic cars and trucks will be at the festival where drift ride alongs will also be available.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Reach Out WorldWide (ROWW), a nonprofit founded by the late Paul Walker and continued by his brother, Cody Walker. Cody helped finish the final scene for Paul in “Furious 7” after the elder Walker died in November 2013.

Tickets to Fuelfest happening at Tampa’s Florida State Fairgrounds on Saturday, March 1 are still available and start at $35. Kids 12 and under get in free.

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This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2025.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...