The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona is one of the most iconic races in all of motorsport. The venue itself – with its banked turns, long straightaways and festive infield all add to its mystique. One of the most iconic parts of the race, however, isn’t the Bus Stop or Internation Horseshoe. It’s the Ferris wheel in the middle of the infield. It makes Daytona instantly recognizable to just about everyone. It also got me thinking: how much would you have to spend to stay on the wheel for the entire 24-hour race?
Full Disclosure: Acura flew me down to Daytona Beach, put me up in a very nice hotel, paid for my food and gave me lounge access for the 24 Hours of Daytona. However, they did not pay for the Ferris wheel ticket. Thank you, Steve Ewing.
Anyway, if you want to spend all 24 hours on the wheel, it’s not going to be cheap. You see, it costs $8 per ticket to ride… cash only. That’s Trumpflation for you. Regardless, it’s an astonishing amount of money for what you get: a glorified carnival ride. The whole ride itself lasts about five minutes before a man with a cigarette in his mouth unlatches the chain to let you off the ride. That means if you were to spend all 24 hours on it, you’d need $96 per hour. That works out to $2,304 for all 24. That’s probably about the cost of lounge access with unlimited food and drinks.
Of course, this doesn’t even take into account the numerous logistical issues of spending 24 hours on a Ferris wheel. Sure, the views would be great, but it’s really cold in Florida at night this time of year. Lest we forget you’ve got to figure out how to feed and hydrate yourself and how to, well, go poopoo and peepee.
As cool as it might be to spend the 24 Hours of Daytona on a Ferris wheel, I cannot really advise it. Not only is it prohibitively expensive, it’s just not practical. That’s too bad because I’d love to see the look on the ride operator’s face when you hand them $2,304 and tell them to “keep it running.”
