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All sporting junkies are tuned into the Daytona 500 this weekend at Daytona International Speedway on Florida's east coast, but racing was actually kicked off in Daytona for the Rolex 24 in late January. The city is the headquarters for NASCAR and the Grand American Road Racing Association. Every year for the Daytona 500, over 200,000 racing fans descend on this city which has a population of around 61,000. NASCAR also hosts the Coke Zero 400 in July at Daytona International Speedway.
Daytona will hardly have time to sweep up after the Daytona 500 before Bike Week 2012 hits town between March 9 - 18th. Over 600,000 are expected for much of the entire event. These bikers pump an estimated $300 million into the local economy. Not too many months later, the bikers are back to celebrate their annual Biketoberfest which will be held October 18 - 21st this year.
Between these two motorcycle events and the NASCAR events, it is a wonder that the residents of Daytona have any hearing left at all.
OSHA tells us that a person can listen to a 90 decibel (dB) sound for 8 hours straight without any hearing damage. 90 dB is approximately as loud as a busy city street.
Adding just a few decibels cuts that safe time dramatically. At 115 dB you can only listen safely for 15 minutes. The sound of a NASCAR race car at full throttle measures approximately 130 dB. That is just one car, not a full field of 43 cars with their sounds echoing off of aluminum grandstands.
A Motorcycle is listed at 100dB, again that is ONE motorcycle. The Decibel (Loudness) Comparison Chart says that pain begins at 125dB. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that bike week exceeds that 125dB level.
April in Daytona brings Black College Reunions with upwards of 10,000 people for the a weekend event. Spring Break in Daytona is another huge wild week long party when thousands of college students descend (some reports say as many as 500,000) on the city for non stop WILD. I have been told that sometimes drinking is involved. I will have to check with Miss Mayta about that.