Daytona question

[x2468]

Me, my bro and my dad are planning on hitting up daytona for the supercross and superbike race. Im lookin at tickets online, and i don't know where is the best place to sit for the superbike race. they give you a few options. also, can i buy pit passes online too? oh, and whats the "fan zone upgrade" thats only like 15 bucks? if anyone can help me out i'd appreciate it.

[benVFR]

I haven't been but you should be able to pick your spot by looking at the track map & box section maps.

Pick a spot that lets you see the highest % of the track at once. Those will be the most expensive and most difficult tickets to get though.

But I hear no one goes to AMA races anymore so you'll be able to sit wherever you want. Also if no one is there once the race starts you can sit wherever you please.

[Degsy]

Best place to sit is on your bike on the track :-))) Ask me how I know.

I wouild say that the best place is the grandstand in the 'infield' area. It's a small grandstand inside the twisty section in the middle of the track. You can access that by buying the 'fan zone' uypgrade as far as I know.

derek

[R7]

I'm heading down there as well. Last I checked there was no savings in buying tickets in advance... and it will never be a sellout. I've always bought my tickets at the gate. Get the general admission tickets for the supercross and get there a bit early and you'll have great seats. Once you're in the grandstands, you'll have a clear shot of the track and you can pick your seat accordingly. Seeing the whole track isn't a problem as long as you choose a seat in the center of the track.

Same thing with the superbike races. I usually buy general admission and upgrade them with paddock passes. The only race I've ever watched from the grandstands is the 200.. and if honda is the only factory team running it this year again, I'll skip that race and hang out on Main St
The best general admission seats i've found for the 200 are heading into the turn 1 area. You can see just about the whole track, have a good view of the start/finish line, good view of the pitstops, and if you get there early you will have a shaded seat when the sun is strongest

[Awesome]

the stands that mark is talking about right at turn one are the best, the one's degs is talking about are ok but you will miss start/finish and a few other things. You get a better angle at most corners from the T1 stands.

[Degsy]

Originally posted by hessogood
the stands that mark is talking about right at turn one are the best, the one's degs is talking about are ok but you will miss start/finish and a few other things. You get a better angle at most corners from the T1 stands.

Jay's right, you will miss the start-finish from the infield grandstand.


Best seat in the house

[tls25rs]

I am sure the seats that the others have mentioned are among the best for simply viewing the race.

If you can figure out a way to get a crew pass they offer you some things that the general admission tickets don't. They will get you down on the hot pits where you can actually walk up to and out on to the starting grid for the pregrid of the roadraces. Also with the crew pass you can be down behind pit wall during the green flag pit stops etc. After getting your fill of the pit life you can then mosey on over to the infield for watching at the international horseshoe, what used to be the dogleg and also a decent view of the west end horseshoe area. These are all different now due to the reconfiguring of the speedway for the bikes but you should be able to get a good view of them all. You really can't see much of the tri oval or the back straight/bus stop chicane from the infield though. The paddock pass that was mentioned will probably get you in the garages but not into the pit lane area.

With a crew pass for the supercross you would be on the pit wall watching the supercross across pit road. This is an ok view but the good part is alot of the roadracers come out to watch the Supercross and you wind up bumping in to them sometimes.

I have to say that I enjoyed the access that the crew passes gave me but I always wondered what it would be like to be able to sit in the grandstands and get a better view of the Supercross and a decent view of the back straight and chicane for the roadracing. If I were to be in the grandstands for the Supercross I would want to be about 1/4 of the way up on the start finish line as you could be high enough to see the whole track but centered on the track for optimal viewing of both ends. If I remember correctly the last time I was at the Supercross they had sold access to the front straight so you could sit on the banked tri oval and watch the race from about 30 feet away elevated about 30 feet at the same time, look into if they are going to do this as it looked like they had the best seats in the house.

One suggestion though is if you have good binoculars bring them along as the speedway is damn big and if you want to see what is going on on the back straight they are very helpful.

No matter where you wind up, have a great time. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to fly down for three days to catch the races or not.

L8R

Joel

[R7]

Last I checked (this was last year) it was $480 for a season crew pass and at the time it could only be purchased at the beginning of the season. Great idea and a great investment if you can afford to travel to more than 1 or 2 events

[TurboRush91]

Fan Zone is just this infield area, that may or may not give you access to the pits. When I was down their for the Rolex 24hr it got your access to the pits and the entire infield.

[Awesome]

I don't think the fan zone gets you access to the pits, but there's a platform to watch the start from, i don't think the views of the rest of the track are all that great.

[tls25rs]

Originally posted by R7
Last I checked (this was last year) it was $480 for a season crew pass and at the time it could only be purchased at the beginning of the season. Great idea and a great investment if you can afford to travel to more than 1 or 2 events

There are ways you can get a crew pass for just the Daytona event. It winds up costing you about $100-$120 which isn't all that much more than the super tickets that are available. (I'm betting that if you ask someone like Peter Kates (a Daytona veteran) or any of the local Loudon racers that are going to be racing in Daytona that week how to get a crew pass they may tell you how it can be done, maybe not I don't know)

That being said, I agree with Jay that the views of the actual racetrack from the infield do leave a little to be desired but the access you can get to the pits etc. with the crew pass can make up for quite a bit of that. Being there during qualifying when the bikes come in and they make a bunch of changes to the suspension, put on a new set of slicks and tear out to try to get one more lap in before time runs out, being there and watching and sensing the tension in the teams when their rider is out on that last qualifying lap and crosses the start finish line and snags the pole by a thousandth of a second. Being out on the starting grid for the 200 is a memory that I wont forget either. Getting up close and taking pictures of the riders just before they head out for the parade lap is pretty cool.

Again, what ever way you get to see the races at Daytona, have a great time and enjoy the racing. It's a different type of experience watching the races at a place like Daytona then it is at the smaller tracks like Loudon and all the hype about it being the first race of the year and (until the 200 became formula extreme bikes) the fastest guys racing the longest race on the calendar makes it fun no matter where you get to watch it from.

Have a good time,

Joel

[x2468]

is a crew pass and a pit pass the same thing? can u get a pit/crew pass online? if u have the pass, can u go sit in the stands during the race and go back and forth.

[R7]

Originally posted by x2468
is a crew pass and a pit pass the same thing? can u get a pit/crew pass online? if u have the pass, can u go sit in the stands during the race and go back and forth.

No, they are not the same. And I don't think you just buy a crew pass online. Your infield pass is a upgraded general admission pass and allows you access to the infield seating and you can still sit in the general admission seating in the grandstands.
I know you can ride your bikes and park in the infield, not sure if you can with a car or not though? It's a 2 mile walk around to get from the grandstands to the infield

[x2468]

does buying the daytona 200 tickets only get me into the FX race, or does it also get me into the superbike race? what about the supersport and superstock races?