RACE YOUR ENGINE AT NEW DAYTONA ATTRACTION.

Byline: Jill Jorden Spitz Orlando Sentinel 

Change a tire.

Talk with a NASCAR racer.

Watch a race from inside a car.

If this is your idea of heaven, then the new Daytona USA is your kind of attraction. And if it's your idea of hell, well, you might like it anyway.

Founders of the $20 million attraction, which opened earlier this month at the Daytona International Speedway, tried to build an attraction that would appeal to people who would die for Dale Earnhardt and for people who don't even know the name. So they threw in a little history, a few thrills and plenty to do.

The racing fanatic, for example, might spend hours battling fellow enthusiasts in the six-person NASCAR trivia game. The nonfan might spend the time taking a stroll through the history of beach racing or playing sportscaster by announcing a race.

A family or a group of friends can gather around a race car and try to beat the 16-second pit-stop record.

``What we're hoping to do is interest people who never had an inkling that they would be interested in racing,'' Daytona USA spokeswoman Lori Campbell Baker said. ``We think we're going to create some fans.''

A visit to the $10-per-person attraction begins with a walk through a pair of corrugated metal twin tunnels like the ones leading into the speedway. Once inside, visitors enter a larger tunnel shaped like the inside of a race car. Beyond the net-covered ``windows'' on each wall are screens showing cars whizzing past.

The centerpiece of the enormous main room is a large section of the speedway track, which offers an up-close look at the 31-degree embankment NASCAR drivers negotiate as they round the track. Three cars - those driven by Bobby Hamilton and Dale Earnhardt, along with the Daytona USA show car - are on the track, and several ``phantom cars'' representing the future of racing drive off into the sky.

In front of the track are two exhibits: the Bluebird, the nearly 30-foot-long, five-ton vehicle that set a land speed record on Daytona Beach in 1935, and driver Jeff Gordon's car, which comes apart section by section every few minutes to demonstrate all that goes into building a stock car.

Behind the track is Heritage of Daytona, a walk-though history of beach racing flanked by murals of the sport's early days. The area also includes a mock-up of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr.'s service station, where gasoline costs 18-1/2 cents per gallon, and a small theater that shows great finishes at various Daytona races.

The attraction also has several exhibits that invite visitors to get involved:

Heroes of the Track features mannequins representing well-known drivers sitting on platforms above television screens. Fans can ``ask'' their favorite driver one of several questions, then hear and watch the recorded answer.

Trilon Trivia Tower, a mock-up of the towering scoreboards from the speedway - where drivers' positions are posted during a race - serves as home base for a 5,000-question racing trivia game. As many as six fans can play against one another as their scores are posted on the tower above them.

You Broadcast the Race lets wanna-be sportscasters go into a booth, punch up a race on a screen and play announcer. On-screen prompts provide drivers' names and car numbers. Announcers can buy a videotape of their performance for $3.

16-Second Pit Stop Challenge is an on-stage area with a live host. Groups of visitors are invited up to see if they can jack up a car, change the tires and fill the gas tank before the 16-second clock runs out. Teams use full-size but lighter-than-normal tires, and a digital display measures the tip of an (empty) gas can to determine how fast the tank fills.

The final stop at the attraction, which visitors navigate at their own pace, is the Pepsi theater. First is a pre-show, held in an area made to look like the underbelly of the grandstand where Daytona 500 fans walk to reach their seats. Next, visitors watch a 14-minute movie projected on a 55-by-26-foot screen.

The film, shown with twice the normal number of frames per second - which speeds up the action - traces a day in the life of the Daytona 500, complete with two minutes inside a victorious NASCAR.

After the movie, visitors enter Victory Lane, where they're cheered and photographed by paparazzi. Also in Victory Lane is a large-screen television showing an interview with the latest Daytona 500 winner - Dale Jarrett - and his winning car as it crossed the finish line.

On Location

Daytona USA is at 1801 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach. It's open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except Christmas (with extended hours during certain times of year). Admission is $10 adults, $8 seniors, $5 kids ages 6-12. Information: [phone].

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Photo, Box

Photo: Visitors try to beat the record for a pit stopat the 16-Second Pit Stop Challenge at Daytona USA theme park in Florida. The groups race the clock to change tires and fill the gas tank.

Mark Losey/Orlando Sentinel

On Location (See text)