On a hot summer day in 1969 I walked with my parents through an unlocked gate into the Daytona International Speedway. (I'm old enough to remember a time when most gates were unlocked.)
When we stepped out of a tunnel under the grandstands and I saw the track I was stunned. A small dot -- a motorcycle running a tire test -- flew down the backstretch, climbed the steeply-banked turn, and rocketed through the tri-oval. I had never seen anything go that fast.
