The consummate Florida beach town, with its T-shirt
shops, amusement arcades and wall-to-wall motels, DAYTONA
BEACH owes its existence to twenty miles of light brown
sand where the only pressure is to strip off and enjoy
yourself. Once a favorite Spring Break destination when
half a million college kids would indulge in underage
drinking and libido liberation, Daytona Beach now discourages
such activity, leaving it free to focus on its true
love: motor sports. Life in this down-to-earth resort
now revolves around three major festivals: February's
Daytona 500, Bike Week in early March, and the relatively
new Biketoberfest .
Pioneering
auto enthusiasts, including Louis Chevrolet, Ransom
Olds and Henry Ford, came to Daytona's firm sands in
the early 1900s to race prototype vehicles beside the
ocean. The land speed record was smashed five times
by the British millionaire Malcolm Campbell who, in
1935, roared along at 276mph. When high speeds made
racing on the sands unsafe, the Daytona International
Speedway , an ungainly configuration of concrete and
steel, was built three miles west of downtown along
International Speedway Boulevard (buses #9A and #9B).
Opened
in 1959, it seats 150,000 and hosts several major race
meetings each year, starting in early February with
the Rolex 24 , a 24-hour race for GT prototype sports
cars. A week or so later the qualifying races start
for the year's biggest event, the Daytona 500 stock-car
race in mid-February. Tickets sell out well in advance
(a weekend package from $220; tel 904/253-7223); book
accommodation at least six months ahead. Though they
can't capture the excitement of a race, guided van tours
(daily except race days 9.30am-5pm, every half-hour;
$6) take you around the remarkable curves, whose gradients
make this the fastest racetrack in the world.
Immediately
outside the Speedway, Daytona USA (daily 9am-7pm; $12)
exhibits one of Campbell's many Bluebirds, the car in
which he broke the land speed record at Ormond Beach
in 1931, as well as interactive displays on the great
races. A mile west, the Klassix Auto Museum at 2909
W International Speedway Blvd (daily 9am-6pm; $8.50)
displays pristine examples of every Corvette design
from 1953 on, plus vintage motorcycles and a 1938 Woody
Wagon that boasts a top speed of 50mph.
For
all the excitement that racing generates, the best thing
about Daytona is the seemingly limitless beach: 500ft
wide at low tide and fading dreamily into the heat haze.
Lined with an all-but-endless procession of enormous
but surprisingly low-priced motels, oceanfront Atlantic
Avenue holds little to lure you away from the water.
At the landward end of Main Street Pier, a $3 ride up
the candy-striped Space Needle enables you to look down
on the surrounding morass of low-rent bars and tattoo
parlors. You can't get to the far end of the pier, though,
because Hurricane Floyd knocked out 280ft of it in 1999.
