Growing up in central Florida, Marshall spent his earliest weekends at the track, tagging along as his father raced in local bracket programs before running the Outlaw Pro Street Motorcycle class across the country, from Gainesville to Indy to Rockingham.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started coming to OSW when I was probably like two or three months old,\u201d Marshall recalls. \u201cMy dad was racing before I was born and continues to race now. He was always into motorcycles, so that\u2019s how I got into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Marshall, the sights and sounds of the racetrack left an early impression. Staple events like Night of Fire and the World Street Nationals were, and still are, two of his favorites on the yearly schedule. Along with his father, Marshall\u2019s mother, and his cousin, Isaiah Rojas, driver of the ProCharged Mech-Tech Pro Mod Corvette, also influenced his involvement in the sport.<\/p>\n
While still in high school, Marshall first joined the staff at Orlando Speed World in a part-time position that gradually became a full-time career. By 2020, when a management change occurred, owner Ozzy Moya already had a replacement in mind. \u201cOzzy called me and gave me the opportunity to come on board full-time,\u201d he says. \u201cI took it and went into the management side of Orlando Speed World. Now it\u2019s my show to run.\u201d<\/p>\n
The promotion, however, did not come without challenges. Marshall works an average of 50 hours a week while taking classes toward his mechanical engineering degree at Seminole State College, with plans to transfer to UCF. He admits that earning respect from racers was a hurdle in the beginning but has improved over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey see a new young kid come in and they\u2019re not as open to that,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I think overall we\u2019ve gotten where we need to be. Everybody knows the deal and I\u2019m not just some young kid here just to fill in a spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
With six full-time employees and a rotating staff of about 55, Marshall oversees multiple departments, including office management, marketing, maintenance, and groundskeeping. During the week, he hosts private track rentals, while weekends are packed with a variety of events. \u201cLack of sleep is the way to do it,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Marshall is also experienced in track prep, a skill he learned firsthand from a previous manager. \u201cI\u2019m always a person to try different things. Franco told me to hop on the tractor, so I did. And from there, I learned more about prepping the racetrack and got better over time,\u201d Marshall says.<\/p>\n
That willingness to dive in has earned him respect beyond OSW. He has been contracted to assist other facilities, including Gainesville Raceway for Sick Week, as well as South Georgia Motorsports Park. In 2022, he had the opportunity to help Kurt Johnson with Total Venue Concepts at the Night Under Fire event at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. \u201cThat was my first time doing anything fuel-related. Prepping for fuel cars is way different than anything I\u2019ve ever seen before,\u201d he says of working with Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars.<\/p>\n
In addition to managing one of Florida\u2019s busiest dragstrips, Marshall is building his own Limited Drag Radial car, a 2018 Infiniti Q60 with a billet 2JZ engine, 106mm turbo, and 5-speed Liberty transmission. His dad is helping with the build, and Marshall values that time spent together in the shop. \u201cI wanted to build something that people don\u2019t normally see,\u201d he says. \u201cHopefully by June, the car will be on the track, if not earlier. There\u2019s not much left to do, but it\u2019s all the little tedious stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Marshall continues working toward his college degree, he sees his long-term future at Orlando Speed World, where a succession plan is already in place for the facility. \u201cI always wanted to get my engineering degree since I was a child, but that\u2019s not the field I plan to go into. I want to carry this out as long as I can,\u201d he explains. \u201cWithin the next few years, Ozzy has plans for me and his two kids to take over the business. His son, Junior, and his daughter, Isabella, and I will fully run the company and basically lease the facility from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Marshall is focused on building events like Night of Fire and Sport Compact Challenge, which is the biggest import race in the world held every October. He also wants to make the facility a place that welcomes a wide range of events, racers, and spectators. \u201cRight now, Orlando is mostly known for the import series. My goal is to make us known for everything \u2013 this is a multicultural place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
With a clear vision and a lifelong passion for drag racing, there\u2019s no doubt Orlando Speed World is in good hands with Marshall at the helm of track operations. He\u2019s excited and focused on improving the 60-year-old facility, but also emphasizes what truly drives its success.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could have the best track in the world, but if you don\u2019t get the people to come and race here, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he says. \u201cIt means nothing without the racers and the people who show up to our facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on January 7, 2026. ![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\")
<\/p>\n
The post DI 30 Under 30 2025: Sydney Marshall<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At just 27 years old, Sydney Marshall is already the face of a new generation in drag racing. He grew up at the racetrack, learned every inch of it from the ground up, and now runs one of the most active racetracks in Florida \u2013 Orlando Speed World Dragway. Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}