derBayerische March/April 2023 - 26

Daytona International Speedway
A Bucket List Trip:
A
ccording to Wiki, " Daytona International Speedway is a race track in
Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has
been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR
as well as its season opening event. In addition to NASCAR, the track also
hosts races of ARCA, AMA Superbike, IMSA, SCCA, and Motocross. The track
features multiple layouts including the
primary 2.5 mile high-speed tri-oval, a
3.56 mile sports car course, a 2.95 mile
motorcycle course, and a 1,320 ft karting
and motorcycle flat-track. The track's
180-acre infield includes the 29-acre
Lake Lloyd, which has hosted powerboat
racing. The speedway is operated by
NASCAR pursuant to a lease with the
City of Daytona Beach on the property
that runs until 2054. Dale Earnhardt is
Daytona International Speedway's alltime
winningest driver, with a total of 34
career victories (12- Daytona 500
Qualifying Races) (7- NASCAR Xfinity
Series Races) (6- Busch Clash Races)
(6- IROC Races) (2- Pepsi 400 July
Races) (1- The 1998 Daytona 500).
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. Lights were installed around the
track in 1998, and today it is the third-largest single-lit outdoor sports facility.
26
By Jacques Raymond | Photos as captioned
The speedway has been renovated four times, with the infield renovated in 2004
and the track repaved in 1978 and 2010. The track is 50 mi (80 km) north of
Orlando. " (That would explain why the major crossroad intersecting
International Speedway Blvd is Bill France Blvd.)
I invited Tommy Ivic to join me, and Tommy invited the usual suspects,
and soon we had a whole posse preparing
for the trip to Daytona Beach in
December: Roman. Tommy, Steve
Bolton, Jason Cornett, Steve Flanagan,
Todd Jones, Kiran Kuna, Mike Wah, and
me. Ryan Stokes met the group briefly for
lunch on the trip down as he wended his
way to an event at Roebling Road, and
Alex and Hannah Pirpiris met up with the
group just to hang out with the gang after
we arrived in Florida.
Initial communications from the
■ (Top) Crossing the finish line! Photo by Sideline Sports
Photography LLC '23. (Above) Daytona, the World Center of
Racing! Photo by Jack Raymond.
organizers were a bit sparse (run
groups? instructors? students? schedule?
check-in? tech?) but everything
eventually fell into place. (Another
reminder not to sweat the small stuff;
everything works out; it almost always
does.)
Daytona is about 840 miles from
central Maryland, so while Dr. Tommy
and some of the posse decided to make it a one-day marathon run (leaving
Maryland at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday and arriving in Daytona Beach at 11 p.m.
the same day - sounds exhausting), I decided to take my time and make it a dayderBayerische
Daytona
International Speedway
Last summer, my friend and Champ Car teammate Roman Boroday mentioned that he had signed up for an Audi
Club high-performance driving event at Daytona. Daytona? Daytona! DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY!!!
The opportunity to drive the road course at Daytona was another item on my motorsports bucket list. Sign me up!

derBayerische March/April 2023

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