Leaving Weaverville, we headed for Daytona. The trip was uninteresting. Not once were we misplaced or lost. It was a long trip but we made it without incident.
We easily found the Wyndham Resort where we will be for two days. Our Wyndham Resort was on the boardwalk, making beach access very accessible. Debby and Nancy took their own beach chairs and spent more than enough time in the Florida sun.
Our first evening was too late to view the sunset from our 14th floor balcony but we did enjoy the Birdseye view of the area.
Ron and I had reservations for the next day’s VIP tour of the Daytona Speedway. It was only a few minutes drive and our one o’clock appointment gave us plenty of time to get there. I bought a new hat and a pair of sunglasses at "Wings", a local souvenir shop across the street from our resort.
Our tour of the speedway was very good! We had a small group of only 13 and we got to visit much of the area. We began with a visit to the Archive Building. This was a place where the owner stored all of the stuff he had collected over the years that had to do with racing. One of the exotic vehicles stored in this building was the Blue Goose, or Spruce or chicken or something like that. It was a long speed car with a single seat in a narrow chassis and high tail fin.
We got to go out and see the speedway track interior where the mechanics shops were, the Winner’s Cirle and some VIP seating. There was much more because this complex was enormous! Our guide s said it was so big that every major professional, non0professional and college stadium complexes could be put inside the Daytona facility. There was even a lake inside the track perimeter where they allowed drivers and VIP’s fishing rights! The lake was formed when, during track construction, digging enough sand to pile up on the turns to create a 30 degree bank was done. Most of the material removed was sand.
The early days of this stock car auto racing began on the Florida beach and eventually evolved onto this 500 acre facility, as envisioned by the owner.
There was more to see. We watched a couple of drivers doing practice laps . Their engines were very loud and because the track was "hot", we could not drive out on the track in our VIP tour. (Bummer!).
After the tour ended, we were dropped off at the Museum and got to roam around in there as long as we wanted. TYhere were cars galore from old racing days. All in all, it was a good tour. If you like stock car racing, this would be a great tour for you.
The next day we headed out early because we were meeting up with friends in Ft Lauderdale.
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