Quote:
Originally Posted by McGary911
AndersW, I didn't notice a grey M235. I'm sure I just missed it. Hope you kept warm and had a good time.
This was the first time I've been there since the track's facelift. I noticed that facelift came with MUCH higher prices. $8 beers, $18 lobster rolls, etc.
I DID see a 2017 LBB M2 at the BMW area. Wow. It was essentially my car that will be here in April. Seeing that thing made April seem even further away. One of the ladies opened it up for me. I couldn't sit in it, but still gave the interior a nice check. She wanted to button it up again pretty quickly, as others were starting to ask if they could check it too. I figure she let me because I had one on order and have never even seen the inside of one.
My friend is a nurse and she worked a 7pm to 7am shift at the infield hospital. Her pass allowed us to get around very easily. Great parking in the infield too. She's worked the twin 200s as well. One thing she noted was that the sports car drivers are soooo much nicer and way more humble than the Nascar guys.
This year we tried something a bit different. They had a charity event called a taste of the 24. They had 24+ local restaurants set up in the front straight hospitality suites. They had a bunch of bars too. It went from 6-10 and was a VERY good time. Food was crazy good. They had a drawing for a Rolex datejust. I didn't win. I DID win a $100 gift card for one of the restaurants though. My only disappointment was that you couldn't see the track from the suites. The grandstands were in the way. I WAS happy to get out of the cold rain. We packed it in at around 11pm. We watched the finish from my couch on Sunday.
Here are a few pics I grabbed. If you look closely at the one, you can see I caught one of the prototypes just getting into a spin. Lucky timing.
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Yeah buddy, how about that facelift!? Daytona is a
seriously nice venue now! I think next year I'm going to stick to the infield food options; specifically the food trucks. There was a BBQ truck in the infield (the midway area) that smelled incredible. We walked across the street from speedway T1 to the Tijuana Flats for dinner, because I didn't want to pay a grip for mediocre food.
I was
blown away at how gracious the drivers in WTSC and CTSC were. These guys love their fans. You could literally wander around the Fan Zone & Grid area and just run in to drivers walking around. I did notice that there was a massive disparity in the attention paid to the Taylor boys and Jeff Gordon. The autograph line for Gordon was a mile long. Meanwhile, it took me about 5 minutes of waiting in line to get autographs from guys like Patrick Long (Le Mans winner) and Bill Auberlen (a guy who has been racing for BMW since the 1990's).
Bill was super-cool, but I think Augusto Farfus is probably my favorite current BMW driver. He was so much fun. I think it's his youth that shines through. He just seems like he's having a blast all the time.
Man, I would have LOVED to have been on the other side of the fence. You are seriously one lucky dude! I got some decent shots. I'm gathering them up now and will post in just a few.