DIS ready to switch on lights

From Daytona International Speedway

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – For the first time in the event’s 68-year history, the season-opening Daytona 200 By Honda at Daytona International Speedway will be held at night on Friday, March 6.

Daytona International Speedway, with the help of permanent and temporary lighting from Musco Lighting, will illuminate “The World Center of Racing” as the stars of AMA Pro Racing battle for 200 miles in America’s most historic motorcycle classic.

Here’s a look at some of the numbers behind the lights at Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 200 By Honda Daytona SportBike race on Friday night, March 6:

· Six portable Musco lighting units will light the infield portion of the 3.51-mile road course. Each unit, which can go up to 133 feet in height, is self-contained, self-sufficient and remote-controlled and generates over 120 million candlepower of light.

· Following Friday’s Daytona 200 By Honda, those six portable Musco lighting units will be repositioned in the tri-oval area of DIS for the Daytona Supercross By Honda on Saturday, March 7.

· The permanent lights on the high banks will be operating at 100 percent with 1,932 light fixtures on 202 poles ranging from 70 feet to 110 feet.

· The mirtran lights located on the inside of the high banks will operate at 50 percent

“It definitely adds to the history bringing it into the night,” said former Daytona 200 By Honda winner Jake Zemke during the initial AMA night motorcycle test in December at DIS. “We started on the beach and then speedway was built and the racing came inside. We’ve gone through course change in the last few years and now we’re going back to the old course and racing at night. It’s another first for the Daytona 200. It definitely adds to the history of the event. It’s just another new chapter.”