If there is a road course in America that has scared the crap out of people more than Daytona, we’d love to hear it. Different tracks may have different corners and sections that are intimidating, but Daytona, ALL of Daytona is a different animal. We’d talked to people who have run there for the first time and they speak of the place in near reverential tones when trying to relate what it is like to be at terminal velocity on the banking and then transitioning to slower speeds in the chicane and the corners. Then there’s guys like Jim Pace, our adopted bad hombre road racer. He’s won the 24 Hours of Daytona twice. Once in class and once overall, so he’s a legit authority on the place and how to get around it as quickly as possible.

Coming in November, the Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) group will be hosting the Classic 24 at Daytona which will last for five days and culminate in a 24 hour stretch of racing with six race groups rotating through one hour stints on the track for the span of 24-hours straight. It promises to be an amazing event and we’re trying to make sure that we’re there to cover it all. This video was commissioned by HSR to provide some education to racers that have not run around the course before so they have at least a cursory idea of what they should expect.

That being said, if you study this video, you’ll have a damned good idea about what the quick way around Daytona is because Jim provides some awesome guidance and information that drivers can apply no matter their speed. Of interest to us was the idea of picking a place to be on the banking and staying there to avoid high speed wreckage. He’s driving a thundering Riley prototype in this video but that’s immaterial. His advice would cover everything from a bug-eyed Sprite all the way up!

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO RIDE WITH JIM PACE AND LISTEN TO HIS NARRATION ABOUT HOW TO PROPERLY LAP THE INTIMIDATING ROAD COURSE AT DAYTONA –