It is the last weekend in January, and international attention is being given to the pit stops and partying at 24 Hours of Daytona. Golf carts and paddock service vehicles zoom about, narrowly missing each other as they deliver tires, tools, and drivers to their destinations. Television camera crews, photographers, and other journalists hustle for interviews and close-ups, working their equipment with professional ease. Cars lining up on the grid are followed by the crush of humanity. Race drivers are not the only celebrities.
Some sponsors use natural resources for attention.
Amateur photographers swarm around the Hooter restaurant girls posing by their employer-sponsored car. They seem to prefer the warm Florida sunshine over the wind, rain, and cold of previous 24-hour races here. Following the national anthem and invocation, it is announced that a few minutes remain before the start. There are plenty of vacancies among the 110,000 seats, each offering a perfect view of the 180-acre infield. They pace around the 3.56-mile road course.