We had a big afternoon ahead of us so we took things easy – rising late, putting some washing on and wondering to Front Porch at the northern end of the esplanade to grab some breakfast. I had the eggs and hash which were great but the hash was done with a jerk flavour. It just didn’t quite stack up against my first experience in Pittsburgh. Dan opted for the breakfast burrito, which he was impressed by and biscuits (which are actually scones). Americans seem to love them with gravy for breakfast (the gravy they come with tastes much more like white sauce than the type of gravy we are used to). Dan declared them, with butter and jam, to be the best scones he had ever eaten. They are pretty good with the scones here… just wish they knew how to serve them with cream (especially seeing as they put cream on absolutely everything else. After breakfast we went back to our room and chilled until it was time to go to the Miami Speedway – it was NASCAR day and we were off to the Ford Eco Boost 400. And the first step was getting there.

It turns out that Miami is pretty big and the Ford Eco Boost was over an hour away – a $50 Uber ride. This was our first experience of using Uber in the US. Up until this point we had used taxis or public transport. It was also our first experience of booking an Uber. We were a little concerned we wouldn’t be able to get someone to take us all the way out to a speedway where there was little likelihood of a return fare. Booking an uber doesn’t really seem to do anything – the app starts searching for an uber once it ticks over to your booking time so the only advantage would be if you expected to be without phone service at the pickup point. We needn’t have worried though, we got an uber quite easily in the end.

The journey though was a different matter – after a short jaunt down the freeway, we turned into w field of palm tree seedlings. It makes sense I guess as there are palm trees lining most of the streets throughout Miami. They stretched for miles though and they were in paddocks like city blocks. As we drove through them, we made turn after turn in a multitude of directions. The uber driver could have been driving us around in circles for hours and it did occur to us for a split second that this was somewhere you could dump a body and someone might never find it. Eventually we made it safely to the edge of the parking paddock and bade our farewell as we walked past row after row of pickup trucks amongst the (not quite as bogan as expected) crowds. Just like entry to any sporting event here, bags and tickets were checked (although less thoroughly than in NYC).

We found our gate and clambered up the stairs to our seats. What had looked like just bench seats, actually had a back, making them much more comfortable. Our tickets were at the end of the row but we were pleasantly surprised with the view (we had purchased cheaper tix as this was all about the experience). We could see the whole track from our seats and as I expect is the case with most oval racing, that is one of the advantages over a street track. When we sat down, we noticed quite a few people with headphones on and some wired together. It seemed a bit excessive to us. At first, I thought they were such big fans they were tuned into the frequency of the garage they were following. [All Tomorrow’s Parties – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – the big sound of this has become a bit of a staple for me while I’m travelling – not really a road song in itself it evokes the idea of the wide open spaces we are travelling through across America.]

As with motor racing in Australia there was a fair bit of pomp and ceremony before the main race got underway – a couple of songs, a procession of drivers, the national anthem (which everyone stood for with their heart. The national anthem seems to be played or performed before all games/matches here. In Australia (my recollection is that) the anthem is usually only played at international matches or before grand finals and the like – Bathurst of course qualifies as the V8 Supercar grand final. This was not Bathurst although it was the last race of the season and would decide the championship.

When the race finally started – from a rolling start which lessened the first corner carnage we are so used to seeing at home – the reason for the headphones became evident. The cars were s loud you couldn’t hear the commentary or the person sitting next to you. Some may say this shows that I am a motor racing virgin. Not true – I have been to Bathurst, the GMC 400 and to Goulburn speedway. Maybe it’s the cars, maybe it’s the speed, maybe it’s the acoustics of the speedway or a combination of all three but it is possibly the loudest thing I have ever experienced (and I go to metal, hardcore and punk shows). It was fantastic. I love motor racing and while the twists and turns of street tracks make the racing (and armchair viewing) more interesting, and you can’t beat the atmosphere of Mount Panorama, I have to say, being able to see the whole track, every pass, every manouvre makes it so enjoyable. [Going Out Strange – Rollins Band – I have only seen Rollins Band once – from behind the merch desk but it was worth the work to get the ticket and my most frequent travelling companion bought a T-shirt from me.]

Just like racing in Australia, the pit crews had a big role with the lead changing numerous times due to faster pitting. There were plenty of tyre changes. Curiously though all changes were done one side of the car at a time. I have no idea if that is a safety requirement but it did seem like an inefficient approach to pitstops.

The race format was a series of three races so after the first one was finished, we went downstairs to find some food – the food outlets were under the stands and also provided a bit of respite from the late afternoon sun. We grabbed a traditional foot long hot dog, which here you could add mustard ketchup and gherkin relish to. That was a revelation to me, as a lover of all types of gherkins and pickled things generally. And it was good. In fact the hot dogs, which tasted more like a good Viennese or continental frank, were far superior to the dogs at the ice hockey in New York – the home of the hot dog. We also took the opportunity to try an arepas – a kind of grilled corn cake. The iconic picture of endless fields of corn in the Midwest is probably pretty accurate. Forget aliens – corn is the real conspiracy here. They put it in everything and find a way to use it in every meal. You see endless tanker trains full of corn syrup to sweeten all the food (including, I am sure, most bread), they serve corn grits (a kind of porridge textured dish) for breakfast. If you don’t have grits, you have syrup on your pancakes or waffles, and then there is a plethora of tex-mex food almost everywhere with corn as a staple, if not southern shrimp often comes with grits and there is always corn bread.

After dinner, we headed back up to the stands for the final two races – the last of which was conducted fully under lights. The racing was close with the lead shifting several times in the last 20 laps, which seemed like they took only seconds to complete. It was a nail-biting finish that decided the season champion and it was an amazing event to experience. Even if you’re not into cars, I would thoroughly recommend NASCAR as an all-American activity on your travels – the speed of the cars is just exihilating and it was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

Once the stands had emptied and we were walking through the massive carpark with everyone else, we had to deal with the next problem – how to get an uber back to Miami. Once we finally got the parking attendants to let us make our way to a road, it was a lot easier than expected. In fact, the uber driver had been hanging around hoping to get a fare. That surprised me. [All Nightmare Long – Metallica – I was introduced to Metallica many years ago by a friend who had discovered Master of Puppets. It was my first experience of metal and remains one of my favourite albums. This is from another good album – 2008’s Death Magnetic.]

US states – 4, t-shirts – 7, fridge magnets – 5