Car racers love the opening season races held at Daytona Beach in Florida. There's just something unique about where the first races took place on the sand beside the water there.
Today's track is serious business, though. You can't be a lame tourist and drive your `71 Grand Prix up the ramp and onto the track like I did years ago.
I wasn't behind the wheel - my husband was. He knew he shouldn't do it, but he had enough fresh orange juice in him to make him crazy, so he did it and we got kicked off somewhere on turn 4 because he drove the wrong way.
The car did a U-turn and we drove back, to the cheers of all the people watching us get away with that big naughty.
Where I grew up, we went to dirt track races, a quarter mile long, at night under the lights, in the country. The hillside was where we sat on blankets to watch the races in the valley.
When a car didn't make turn one because some yo-yo rammed it, the car and driver went sailing up and over the bank and disappeared in the dark, probably ending up in a cow pasture. Scary stuff.
They had a Powder Puff race once in awhile for women behind the wheel, but the women didn't race all out like the men did, so they weren't as much fun to watch. Just the name itself was insulting and screamed Boring.
My dad took me to a paved track in Toronto when I was 8 or 9 years old, with his brother. They both were auto mechanics and we all loved races.
But I hated that hot day race, because there was no dirt flying out from under sliding tires as they drifted crazily around the corners. Just squealing tires and burning rubber - not my idea of a race.
Sunshine Speedway in St. Petersburg, Florida had some great races until they closed it down. The figure-eight race under the lights was really exciting because drivers had to dodge each other.
One of my favorite races was what they call a Wreckem Race. Cars drive backwards around the track. Last one standing was the winner.
Smashing the radiators on those old relics was the fastest way to put a car out of the running.
Once in Northern Ontario, I saw a moonlight Wreckem Race on ice in January. it was freezing cold but the anticipation kept us warm and willing to be there. The track, on a frozen lake, had bales of straw for barriers around the perimeter, to keep the spectators relatively safe. We stood, shoulders hunched, hands shoved into pockets and earmuffs on, to watch that crazy mess.
Old cars that nobody wanted except for this one race slid around the track, completely out of control on ice, using bald summer tires, of course.
The race lasted a long time, because it took forever to hit and eliminate a car. One of the most fun races ever.
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