Daytona Rolex 24

At the end of January we took a weekend trip to Daytona Beach to watch the 24-hour Rolex 24 race at the Daytona International Speedway. We stayed in a beach hotel Friday and Saturday nights. It was a great room with a living room area and full kitchen.

We also had a great beach view. Unfortunately, it was really cold, so we didn't get to enjoy all that the hotel location had to offer. The race didn't start until Saturday afternoon, so we did have time to enjoy the heated pool Friday night.

The kids have been begging us to return to the Daytona Arcade Museum, and we had time Saturday morning to get some gaming in. The full-day bracelets allowed us to return again after dinner. Ronan loves the racing games, of course. Brielle gravitates towards Pong and pinball games.

Predictably, I got in as much Frogger play as I could, even beating my previously posted high score! Kraig also renewed his high score on Gorf.

 We arrived at the Speedway a little bit before the start of the race. The venue is so large that even though we had a pretty good reserved parking space in the outside lot, it was still a very long walk to get inside. We took a tunnel to the infield where we had a chance to look at cars and play on an inflatable slide.

We had to take a shuttle to get from the infield to the stands. Many attendees park their RVs in the infield and watch the game from there. Thousands sit in the stands, but there are so many seats that it wasn't difficult to find a place to sit down. We decided to sit on the end with a view of the horseshoe turns where the cars leave the main oval and have to slow down to navigate tight turns.  Each lap was 3.5 miles long.

People are allowed to bring in their own food and drinks, so we enjoyed a homemade lunch and drinks while watching.

After watching for a while, we went back to the infield to watch the race from up close.

After a nice dinner at PF Changs across the street and another visit to the Arcade Museum, we returned to the Speedway to watch the cars race at night. The entire race is 24 hours, with cars only stopping for pit stops, driver changes, or accidents.

We all agreed it was even more exciting seeing the cars race at night, all lit up.

 The only downside was the unseasonably cold weather. We all wore noise-cancelling headphones because the roar of the cars is so loud. As a bonus, they helped to keep our ears warm as well.

The stands were pretty empty, since people can come and go over the course of the 24 hours. It was easy to walk down to the bottom to get a close-up view of the cars.

 And here's my best effort at catching a photo of cars that are traveling almost 200 miles per hour:

 

One reason we returned in the evening was to watch a fireworks show. The complex is so large that even though the fireworks were being set off in the middle of the infield, they still looked far away! We could also barely hear them over the roar of the cars. 

It was a late night for the kids, but we couldn't leave without riding on the ferris wheel on the infield.

After checking out from the hotel and having brunch, we returned to the Speedway to catch the last couple hours of the race. It was still cold, but now it was also rainy. Kraig dropped us off near an entrance and the kids and I sat in the wet stands with plastic bags on our heads as we watched the cars slip off the road in the horseshoe track. The race had been stopped or slowed down a couple of times so far due to dangerous driving conditions. The track was holding water and visibility was bad for the drivers. It wasn't long before the race was stopped completely due to safety concerns.

We went inside to eat snacks and watch the TV monitors to await a decision on whether the race would start again. Equipment was brought out to try to clear water from the roadway. We huddled together for warmth and walked around to explore the stadium.

 When the red flag was waved, the cars carefully lined up in their current order to await the next steps. Ultimately, the decision was made that the weather conditions were too hazardous to continue the race, and about 10 minutes before the 24 hours was up, they waved the checkered flag and announced the #10 car in the first position was the winner.

 








We were unlucky that we hit this race during the worst weather event the Rolex 24 has ever experienced. But the kids didn't complain and we had a really good time. It was definitely a new type of experience for us, and we're looking forward to doing it again - hopefully with better weather next time.