Streamline Hotel

Easily established is the fact that the Daytona Beach area is North America’s birthplace of speed. At the turn of the 20th century the “elite” of the world attended Daytona Beach to shed the sinter blues. The playboy personalities brought along their latest inventions and toys (not much different than today, just the styles on the arm candy has changed) to show off.

The newest of inventions of the day was the automobile and with that came unorganized competitions between the owners and builders of the early autos. Documentation of the early unorganized events can be found in many locations of the area and will be covered in future articles.

Fast forward to 1947. Bill France, a garage owner, race car builder, race car driver and race promoter was living in the town of Daytona Beach and operating a vehicle repair garage on Main St. At the same time he had been promoting races and campaigning a modified class of race car throughout the south east. He had listened to other owner/drivers moaning about poor pay offs and unscrupulous promoters running off with the purses before the race was completed and decided to try to organize them into a solid group that would work together.

Big Bill, being a very successful entrepreneur felt that Daytona Beach would be the place of the inaugural meeting and the place would be the Streamline Hotel located just off the beach at 140 South Atlantic Avenue. The date is well documented to be December 14, 1947. It has been said (backed by hotel documentation) that Bill operated the bar at the Streamline Lounge that day in an effort to raise funds for the initial organizational costs of opening the new organization. All of the elite of stock car racing were invited an in attendance. Out of that meeting in the roof-top lounge came the Organization now known as NASCAR. Hence this hotel can claim the distinct title of “The Birthplace of Nascar”.

All of the aforementioned information can be further researched and expanded upon by visiting sites depicting NASCAR’s history, attending the NASCAR Hall of Fame, reading publications written by Greg Fielden and by Buz McKim.

The Streamline Hotel is unique in both its history and appearance. It is one of the few “art deco” buildings left standing on the beach, and the only one that has been restored to depict its famous history. The present owners of the building are entrepreneurs with a mission to preserve the history of the building, the beach and racing on the beach. They formed a perfect fit allying with the Victory Lane Racing Association in that they had the venue and the association had the history and living personalities. That is a winning combination to give it the necessary ambiance while paying distinct tribute to those personalities that made Daytona Beach and this hotel famous.
Upon entering Atlantic Avenue from International Speedway Blvd, the view of the building hits you immediately. You don’t have to be a fan of art deco to be overwhelmed by its appearance nor a fan of racing history to immediately see its association with the speed era. For those who are new to the area, the sign (from the past) says it all. It announces that it is the “birthplace of Nascar”.

So……now you’ve caught a glimpse of the building, its time to look inside. The moment that you walk in the door you are hit with an abundance of historical pictures. Drivers, cars, owners and builders are all honored by tributes surrounding the foyer. Behind the front desk you see a large picture of the building as it appeared in the early 50’s. The original mail/key slots are still in place retaining the authenticity of the building.

As you make your way down the corridor toward the rear of the building each door has the name of a driver from the days of beach racing. Inside those doors, the management has created a theme that depicts the racing history of the driver. Drivers pictures and memorabilia is found everywhere within that room. Names like Cannonball Baker, Russ Truelove, Ray Fox, “Mad” Marion MacDonald, “Fireball” Roberts and others are enshrined in the rooms of the Streamline Hotel.

Next you take the elevator to the rooftop lounge, yes the exact place that NASCAR was born on December 14, 1947. Just sit down and let your imagination drift you back to the time. You can almost hear the arguments taking place that day. Then you step out onto the rooftop deck and get a panoramic view of Daytona. You can even see the top of the Petty and Earnhardt towers at the present Daytona International Speedway.

We look around at others who like us are just drinking in the history that is available, not wanting to miss anything. One more lap through the building in case we’ve missed anything is in order, then outside to get another look at what the building means to us and the community.

A special thanks goes out to the management and staff of the Streamline Hotel and to the Victory Lane Racing Association (co-founded by Zetta Baker, president of Victory Lane realty inc.) for preserving a portion the history of racing.

Classic Auto Appraisals

Welland’s Seaway Mall Cruise
2009 Season Winner of Daytona 500 tickets

September 19, 2009

Dear Cruise Participants;

Classic Auto Appraisals has been distributing lucky tickets to the driver’s of vehicles that attend the two weekly cruises being produced by Cruise Niagara and its directors throughout the summer of 2009. Those tickets were to be saved by each participant until today for a draw that you may have just witnessed.

At the start of the 2009 cruise season Classic Auto Appraisals pre-purchased two reserved seating tickets from Daytona International Speedway’s ticket office for use in this draw and provided the cruise coordinator with the specific information pertaining to the seat locations.

The seats are #’s 4 & 5 of Row 15 in Box “K” of the Weatherly Grandstand. This prime seating is located on the front side of the track just past turn 4 at the location where the cars begin their entrance to the pits. In other words “action central”.

The aforementioned tickets are distributed to the purchaser (Classic Auto Appraisals) through the mail by Daytona International Speedway’s ticket office, two to four weeks before the event. We will accept them using our confirmation number of X29X597XX and will then forward them to the undisputed winner. We will need to have a proper address for the winner so that they can be forwarded promptly.

We hope that the person holding lucky ticket number “207175? will enjoy his/her time at the track on Sunday February 14, 2010 for the 52nd running of the Daytona 500. The “500”has always been exciting for us and we hope that you will find it to be the same.

Sincerely
J.W. (Jim) Cowan

Pro Modified Racing Association launched its 2009 season this weekend at North Toronto Motorsport Park. Dispite the cold and rainy weather (a norm for the first ‘unofficial’ long weekend of summer) the racing has so far been enough to keep spirits kindled. By the end of tonight’s round Smokin’ Joe Boniferro is sitting second with a career best. The Vegas Fuel Dodge Avenger ran the 1/4 mile with a time of 6.34 sec., reaching a speed of 222 mph. With smiles among the entire Smokin’ Joe team, they are in a good position for tomorrow. As far as I know, the temerature may not be the most desirable, but the rain will hold off. We wish Joe the best of luck in his bid to win the season opener for the series. Keep in touch for further updates.

Will supply a Piston Kit in New Quick 32 Sportsman Series