It was highly recommended by my employer that if I was to take any significant time off to do so between Jan and Mar, since our busy season is Spring-Fall. I haven’t been to Florida for many years, except for work. So I was trying to plan a trip with one of the Bunco gals to visit our childhood friend and former Bunco gal who moved to Port Saint Lucy several years ago. However, they were planning on going the first week in March and I couldn’t justify going then since the supervisor who runs our crews in Idaho quit the end of February. We were also too busy with software changes at work Jan-Feb. So low and behold, I figured I would try to make it to the Daytona 200. None of my racing friends/fans I know could go or didn’t want to. So, I called my Sista (whom I dragged with me to the Inaugerul Indy MotoGP races in 2008) and asked if she’d be interested in going for an extended weekend trip (Thur-Mon, Mar 10-14) to Daytona and to the races. Luckily for me, she said yes!
I bought tickets for both Friday and Saturday. There was qualifying and a Baggers race on Friday. On Saturday there was practice and races: the 200, Roland Sands Hooligans, Twin Cups and another Baggers. Then we intended to use our last full day there, Sunday, as a beach day. I originally had us booked on the north end of Daytona Beach, but couldn’t justify the extreme hike in prices, so changed it to an Extended Stay in Lake Mary on the northeast side of Orlando, just off of Interstate 4 which goes straight to Daytona. We made the drive back and forth every day, but it only took around 30-40 minutes.
This was my first time attending the Daytona 200. I watched this race every year for many years when it used to be aired live on the network channels and I always wanted to go. I recall Scott Russell’s heydays there racing for Muzzy, Carl Fogerty rivalries, Miguel DuHamel racing while still healing from a broken femur and while still using a cane, and the infamous kick Aaron Yates made to another racers after a crash, which required some anger management courses. Oh and then the year Russell while racing for Harley was hit bad at the start of the race. I still have those images of his torn up limbs with exposed flesh/muscle in my brain. Ugh!
So, I was super pumped to attend minus that last part about Russell!
When we first arrived Friday we parked in the back of a Cracker Barrel next to the track and walked through the area out front where the factories had tents with bikes, including vendors. I was pleasantly shocked to find the bike I had recently been reading up on at the Honda tent, NC750 DCT. There were some guys by it and a Honda worker there too. I was telling the Honda guy that I had recently been reading up on it and that my current bike has 58K miles so I needed something new eventually, and I asked if there was an after-market windshield, but nope. However, a bystander there who also owns this bike told me he knows someone who can make a taller one for it and gave me his business card. This guy was more helpful than the Honda guy working there, and also raved about how much he loves it vs his other bikes.
From there we went to what appeared the main entrance only to find out the grandstands weren’t open that day but we were told where to drive to get into the infield. The first day we hung out around the hairpin to watch the practice/qualifying and Baggers race, with a walk through the garage area and lunch at the only food concession stand. It was 87 and sunny that day and we both got a bit burnt. When I asked workers there about how to get to the grandstands, I was told again it was not open and not to base my opinion of the track on that day and to wait until the main day of racing the next day, Saturday.
On Saturday the grandstands were open, and one extra concession (a wrap truck) in the infield and hardly any open concessions in the grandstands. I was not at all impressed with the facility. You had to walk all the way to one of the tunnels on either end of the grandstands just to get there and no other way back and forth. Plus, you had to drive around quite a distance to even get to the gift shop. One of the workers was quite snooty with me when I asked if there as any other way to get back to the infield later in the day. Gees Louise, even Indy has a pedestrian tunnel near the start/finish. This facility is definitely catering only to car races and I will never go back there. However, glad to say I can check this event off of my bucket list.
Earlier in the day on Saturday it started to rain shortly after arriving which caused a 2-3 hour rain delay. After lunch we ended up staying in the grandstands for the whole afternoon of races, since it took us a really long time to get there and I really wanted to be at the finish line for the end of the 200 race.
It was looking really good for Josh Herrin to pull it off on the Ducati, as he took pole and even the pit-stop challenge, and because he was shodding my favorite bike I had planned on rooting for him anyway. However, he ran out of gas coming into the pits during the race and then I heard his bike was mis-firing when he was leaving the pits. The same guy who won last year, Brandon Paasch, won again this year. No clue who he is?!
I was also rooting for a local guy, Ray Hoffman (171) from Waupun, and he ended up 23rd out of 50. Then later that day I found out my friend Terry who still races CCS was there helping crew for Ray. Darn!
So, Sunday was our planned beach day at Daytona Beach and we packed our swimsuits trying to remain hopeful because that storm/rain front brought in much cooler temps. Only in the high 30s that morning. I read that Main Street in Daytona might be opened back up to cars, and it was. And since it was so chilly and the last day of Bike Week, there weren’t too many people around, and we were able to park right next to the beach. We walked from there and found one spot you could drive out to the beach for $20, but I think we were okay with walking the beach since we were pretty certain it wasn’t going to be a beach day after all. We ended up at Crabby’s Oceanside for lunch where I had some excellent oysters, including crab/spinach dip.
We had quite the ups and downs with the weather on our trip with some hydro-plaining on the flooded interstate our first day, and I even joked around with Lori that I hoped this didn’t end up like Indy where the race ended early due to the remnants of Hurricane Ike. However, we had some extremely excellent food and the whole trip was so much fun, and so much needed by me. Thank you Sista for going and making it such a nice vacation, love you!!!
