People flock to Daytona Beach every February to kick off the NASCAR racing season. Fans come to see heart-stopping excitement, stiff competition, and their favorite drivers. I, on the other hand, had a mission for this year’s “Super Bowl of Motorsports.” Although it did involve heart-stopping excitement, and to some degree, competition, my mission had nothing at all to do with the actual race.

Vin Diesel, action star of films like XXX, Pitch Black, and The Fast and The Furious, teamed up last August with Pontiac to drive the Daytona 500 pace car for 2003. This left open the possibility that Vin would be hanging around the fan area at some point before the race, and that I might have a shot at meeting him. I had about five months to find some tickets and it wasn’t going to be easy. Mission Impossible? Maybe.

Getting in to the Daytona 500 is harder than finding talent on “American Idol.” Up until two weeks before the race, I had no luck, but things turned around when my dad made some business connections and scored some tickets.

Prepared with film, camera, binoculars, and a permanent marker, I was ready to go. Would I be able to meet him? Would he be just as amazing in person as on the big screen? Would I be able to talk to him without sounding like an idiot? These were just some of the questions racing through my mind as I searched for the Pontiac tent in the fan area.

Finally, as I rounded the corner, my heart started pounding and the adrenaline began pumping. I could see the camera flashes coming from the mob of people from behind a table filled with XXX movie posters, Vin Diesel was there, in all his glory.

“The line is around the corner,” said one of the Pontiac representatives. “But it’s closed.” Insert sad, weeping violin music here.

“Closed?” I asked. “You don’t understand, I came to the race only to meet Vin Diesel.”

“Sorry,” he said. There was no way I was going to leave without meeting Vin, whether it landed me in jail or not. So I proceeded to the secret weapon that no one can resist. Money.

After being turned down once, I found a woman who would rather take a ten-dollar bill than meet the mortal god that is Vin Diesel and I took her place in line. There I was, within minutes of having my dream come true when I see a police escort arrive alongside a van with its door open ready for someone to hop in.

The line started movingly rapidly, but not fast enough, because I knew at any second he was going to be rushed into that van and the door to my dream would be shut in my face. As fate would have it, I made it to the table full of posters and through the Pontiac representatives who were trying to whisk him away.

“Vin, I wrote an essay on your film Multi-facial for my class,” I said with surprising clarity. The importance of Multi-facial is that Vin produced, directed, and starred in this short film of which not many people are familiar.

He seemed shocked, perhaps impressed. In the sea of people he met that day, he knew that I was there especially for him and he appreciated that.

While being tugged at to leave, he wouldn’t budge until he personalized a poster complete with my name and a note…Multi-facial…I like that. It seemed like time stood still while I finally got my moment in the sun with the man I admire most.

As he was driven off to jump into the pace car, I realized that he truly cares about his fans. Whether they are there just to see “that guy from XXX,” as one person called him, or whether they are hardcore fanatics like me, he was enjoying it all.