I went to the Daytona 24 hour race in 1990 and 1991.

Both visits were made somewhat more cheaply than going to Le Mans using virtually free trips across the Atlantic due to my employment in air traffic control.

The first visit was by Kuwait Airways to New York and then just asking for a jump seat down to Florida. The second trip was by American Airlines to Miami and then a short connecting flight.

In 1990 I was joined by a friend who regualrly went to Le Mans and we just camped in the hire car during the race. Then afterwards had a few days driving round Florida to the Kennedy Space Centre and the Sebring race track.

In 1991 I went on my own and planned to camp in the car again but the weather was torrential rain on the Friday when I arrived and all day Saturday. I managed to get a room in a local hotel on Friday but attempted to dry out on Saturday night by having the car air conditioning on for a few hours!

Its an amazing sight from the grandstand to be able to see the whole track and the whole thing was much more free and easy compared to tracks in Europe. During the race I could still walk around the paddock and because there aren't enough pits a lot of the cars are taken back into the paddock for more major repairs.

Apparently Daytona is the 'world center (sic) of racing' or so it says as you go in! My son reported it says more or less the same when he went to the Indianapolis 500!