Daytona Beach, FL – Another milestone is notched in the Daytona Rising project at Daytona International Speedway.
In a special media event Tuesday morning, the final 6 grandstands seats were installed by International Speedway Corporation Board Chairman Jim France and Ted Swartzlander, a DIS ticket holder from Winter Park who’s been attending races since the 1960’s.
Among the 6 seats that were installed in Section 352 – right above the finish line – is the one Swartzlander regularly uses when watching races. He noted that one in particular by signing it with a black marker, as did France himself (photo below this article).
Swartzlander said afterward that he was amazed at how the historic motorsports stadium looks now that it’s nearly complete, especially with all the new amenities and features like the escalators.
“I’ve been to other race tracks and it’s amazing,” Swartzlander added. “I’m proud to be part of this for as many years as I’ve been coming over here since I was a kid. It’s fantastic.”
France said this renovation – which has been in the works for the better part of 2 years – was all for the fans.
“Of the facilities that I’ve been to, I don’t know that there’s another one in the world that spent $400 million dollars on the fan part of the venue,” France noted.
As part of the renovation, seating capacity at DIS dropped to 101,500, though most of that came when DIS decided to destroy the thousands of seats that made up the backstretch grandstands and make all the seats on the nearly mile-long frontstretch wider than the old ones.
DIS officials say the completed facility will be ready to host its first event – the Rolex 24 at Daytona – later this month.
Click here to see a photo album of the seat installation.
Copyright 2016 Southern Stone Communications.