February 2, 2022 - Daytona Speedway
Bruce and I drove up to Daytona from Sebastian to go on a tour of the famous Daytona International Speedway. The place is gigantic -- the grandstands building probably goes for half a mile.
The track was built in 1959 by NASCAR founder William "Bill" France Sr. to host racing that was held at the former Daytona Beach Road Course. His banked design permitted higher speeds and gave fans a better view of the cars.
The tour was well organized. You get on a towed tram. The driver is also the tour guide. We were lucky in that the tram actual drove on the track. That's not always the case; i.e., obviously the tram doesn't go on the track if the track is being used by cars going 200 mph.
A look at the inner "road course" which is used -- in addition to the regular track -- for the Rolex 24, a 24 hour endurance race similar to LeMans.
A good look at the 31 degree bank.
The mixed seat colors are designed to make it look like the stands are full of people.
Notice the high fence to prevent cars, or pieces of cars, from flying into the stands.
I'm just happy to be here.
There's the finish line!
The track's grandstands has 101,500 permanent seats with the ability to increase permanent seating to 125,000.
Our tour guide yelling at some guy who stepped on the finish line (after we were all told not to).
Next the tour tram took us into the infield. Here we are passing a VIP area (I think).
Maintenance bays to get the cars ready for the race.
A racecar on the street side of the grandstands.
Looking at the infield.
After the tour was complete, we went into the museum. The yellow car pictured here is the winner from last year's Daytona 500 race, driven by Michael McDowell. The Daytona 500 winner is obligated to display his car in the museum for a year.
The car is exactly as it was when it won the race. Looks pretty good, doesn't it?
Check out the other side. The car had been forced into the wall sometime during the race. They ducktaped it together and it managed to win the race anyways!
The Museum is called Motorsports Hall of Fam. In addition to cars, they had motorcycles, drag racers, boats and even an airplane!
A Monnett Sonerai-1 named "Blueberry" which competed in more Formula V Pylon Races than any other plane. It was introduced in 1971 and used a Volkswagen engine.
Racing on the Daytona hard-packed beach back inthe 30s-50s.
