Long before the Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, race car drivers flocked to Daytona Beach to race on the well packed beach. The wide beach and smooth sands created the perfect site for testing and racing high speed automobiles. By the mid 1920s the new Pier Casino attracted many Florida vacationers, including many race car drivers. When their photographs circulated worldwide, Daytona Beach took on the catch phrase the World's Most Famous Beach.
   Today, beachgoers can still drive onto the beach at Daytona Beach Shores, one of the few beaches in the country to allow automobile access. The Sunglow Pier nearing the southern end of Daytona Beach was built in 1960 and is a great place for fishing. To the north about six miles, the Daytona Beach Pier weathered many storms since 1925, and is one of Daytona's most recognizable landmarks. Over the years the pier has been known as Ocean Pier, Keating Pier, Pier Casino and Main Street Pier, but to local residents it's just The Pier.
   To the south of the Sunglow Pier on South Atlantic Avenue, Racing's North Turn marks the site were the first Grand National Race began in 1948. These races continued for the next 10 years before moving inland to the new raceway. Ponce Inlet Historic and Archaeological Preservation Board announced Racing's North Turn would be recognized as a Historic Landmark. On February 17th, hundreds of spectators watched the winner of the 2011 Daytona 500, Trevor Bayne, climb into Number 21 and run down the beach. The first race car to tear up the beach in 64 years, Bayne rounded the North Turn and then headed toward Daytona International Speedway.

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