That's Dale Earnheart's "donut" on the side of Jeff Gordon's '99 Daytona 500-winning car
You have to go to the track to see non-Harleys at Biketoberfest
Racing underway on the infield road course
Looks pretty cool on the high banking
So, first things first. Got the motorhome basically ready for travel, everything except unhooking the power and water. Then hopped in the BMW and drove around to the other side of the track to hit Daytona USA.
Daytona USA is basically a Nascar attraction. It's actually really well done. You can even play Papyrus' Nascar game. Lots of interestign exhibits, about the history of Nascar, the history of the Daytona race track, and the history of Bill France. I didn't know before this, for example, that back before I was born, before the track was built, racing at Daytona happened on a temporary track that was half on highway A1A along the coast, and half on the beach, with big banked turns made of sand. Old footage of those races was amazing!
I was actually moved by watching the post-race interview of when Darryl Waltrip won the Daytona 500 a few years back. He might just become my new favorite Nascar driver, based on that and other driver-specific things at the track.
After spending almost two hours (including two films) inside Daytona USA, I went on a track tour. Normally you'd get to be on the track, and that would be cool, with the 31-degree banking and everything. But there is racing going on, using both the banking and the infield road course. So we toured the infield, watched the 600cc race for a while, and that was that.
Now that I've been inside the track, I realize that the railing and fencing right next to the campground is in fact the outside wall of turn 3. There are no stands there, so I was closer to the track than I thought. Of course, with the huge banking, the 50-foot hill up to that wall made it so that I couldn't see anything from the campsite at all.
Daytona is a much nicer place than Indianapolis, considering that they are both 2.5 mile ovals. Of course, Daytona is much newer, which probably accounts for much of the difference. I was glad I went.
Anyway, I went back to the campground, got the BMW all secured on the trailer, unhooked, and headed out. I did in fact stop for the night roughly where I figured I would, in DeFuniak Springs, FL, between Tallahassee and Pensacola. During today's drive I passed through the 10,000 mile mark for this trip, and that doesn't include the 1,000 or so I've put on the BMW. I figure that I can make it to the Texas border tomorrow, something like that, anyway. I'm going to pass by New Orleans, since I was there less than a year ago and I'm going back for New Years ...