Before you get any ideas:  NO, I have not begun spiraling down the beer-slicked precipice of NASCAR fanhood.  I have visited the hive, the very core, the alpha-oval, the mecca of stock-car racing, and emerged on the other side largely unchanged, and still owning exactly zero (0.00) Dale Junior apparel.  No credit to my fortitude really, but rather a credit to the event for which I made the pilgrimage.  A walk through the paddock on this occasion revealed no sponsor-swathed spec-racers, but rather a menagerie of some of the most exotic metal and carbon-fiber creations every to grace the road or track.

La Belle Machina D’Italia Sud 2008: The inaugural event in what will hopefully become a tradition of Italian Car track days at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) provides a warmer, southern equivalent to the Pocono event I have frequented for the past 17 years. This event showcases the same drool-inducing selection of cars only with better hospitality and a beach.  Everyone wins really (except the guy who stuffs his $2,000,000 Maserati MC12 into a wall…he does not win…not at all). 

As dearly as I would love to carry this on for umpteen pages, I will endeavor to focus on the highlights where possible in a bid to accommodate some of my readers’ anemic attention spans.  If you start to drift off, just look at a pretty picture for a minute and then come back.  Honestly, in spite of my considerable grasp of the English language, and even with thesaurus close at hand, I can only think of so may ways to say, "We loaded a car on a trailer for the 18th year in a row, drove 13 hours over two days, arrived at the track, and unloaded the car".  That said, before getting to the actual point...and to assuage those who are curious like that, we stayed at The Shores, which was really pretty laid back and rather high-end (shocking I know...for a Ferrari Club meet).  True, this fact holds little significance on its own, but gains meaning in the context of the usual accommodations we find in Pocono, PA:  that is to say, a Comfort Inn in which a "luxury suite" smells of dirty gym socks and contains a sofa that has clearly been hit by a car.  So, on that count, Daytona represents at least a small step forward.

Now, on to business.

First of all:  the track.  Let be lead off by paying my deepest compliments to the facility itself and those who run it.  I have never been to a better manicured or cleaner racing facility.  I realize that, being NASCAR’s marquee destination, it basically has unlimited funds to work with, but money is nothing if not properly managed and reinvested towards keeping things nice.  The track itself is not particularly complicated, doesn't overwhelm with dozens of corners corners, and is not overly long.  However, learning it remains a daunting task.  None of the corners are what I would call “normal”.  Most require either a very early or very late apex, and others literally turn you sideways.  Yes, Daytona has 32 degree banking.  To elaborate slightly on that point, I will point out that, if traveling less than 100mph or so, one must actually steer up the slope, opposite the direction of the bend, to keep the car from “sliding” down to the bottom of the track.  Driving onto the banking creates the sensation of being turned upside-down.  To look far enough ahead to drive smoothly one must look out the top of the windshield, rather than the side window.  Of course, being a sports-car event, this event used the infield road-course section in addition to the banked oval.  This means that the driver must face both left and right-hand corners…which makes things more fun.

The layout for this event matches that used for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, the endurance classic run in January.  I have traced the route on an overhead photo of the track.  You drive the oval, with the exception of a dip into the infield section, and a “bus-stop” chicane about ¾ of the way down the back straight.  I can’t speak for the quickest cars there, but maximum speed for the 1986 Testarossa that I was crewing for, was about 160mph approaching the start/finish line.  I am certain the Daytona Prototype race-car, the 997 GT2, and the FXX were moving significantly quicker...
  

The weekend itself proved pleasant in spite of the early threat of rain on the first day.  Precipitation did occur, but not in significant enough quantity to affect the goings-on.  We discovered, towards the end of the first day, that our brake fluid was not up to the task of hauling the relatively heavy Testarossa down from high speed repeatedly, and we had thoroughly cooked it by lunch time.  Fortunately, we were able to obtain some stouter stuff from the CDOC vendor, and cycled that into the front brakes.  This seemed to cure the problem, as the brake fade did not resurface.

My hobby for the weekend involved figuring out how to set up an in-car camera and to somehow manage to record the sound of the car without also recording the 140mph breeze "gently wafting" through the open windows.  After repeated attempts to shield or block off the built-in mic on the camera, we broke down and hit up Radio Shack for a tie-clip mic.  Mercifully, we had enough forethought to buy a camera with an audio-in jack, which is apparently a must for in-car filming.  With the mic mounted in the engine bay, we achieved a decent engine noise without wind buffet. 

While I did spend most of my time playing "pit crew" with camera technician, I did get out of the garage a bit. On the last day, I snagged a ride with an optometrist in a new M5.  This proved eye-opening...no pun intended.  Had I been blindfolded and placed in the car, and then driven around the track, "Sedan" would not have been my first guess.  The acceleration and braking do not translate as “four-doors, and an ample trunk”.  It corners very flat, and seemed fairly predictable even in the hands of an admitted track-day amateur.  I will say that the sensation of the active seat bolsters literally hugging you as the car goes through a turn takes some getting-used-to. 

The only real drama for the weekend involved the afore-mentioned MC12.  Personally, I give the guy props for having the balls to use the car as it was intended, rather than just sticking it in an air-conditioned garage and looking at it wistfully every week or so.  Unfortunately, the cost of doing business, in his case, will be pretty steep.  I said that was the only drama, but we did blow out a tire on the trailer on the way home, which is nerve-wracking with a Ferrari on it and not an overly large tow vehicle, but the tire on the other axle held and thus averted disaster.

See, that wasn’t too bad.  I tried really hard to avoid much of the gratuitous detail and technical drivel that I am oft guilty of inflicting on anyone who actually still reads things I post on this site.  Now, if you haven’t already, look at the pretty pictures/video.

-Wheelman out.