Gary Bursey is easily one of Metro Moncton's biggest NASCAR fans. The semi-retired construction worker and manager goes to six races a year on his way to and from Florida, where he and his wife Rhonda spend their winters.

But the couple used to dedicate the better part of their summers to following NASCAR around the United States in their RV.

"We did 12 or 13 races (a year) for a couple of years in a row," Gary says. "But now that the fuel's more expensive we just do the ones on the way to Florida and the ones on the way back."

Though ticket prices vary depending on the raceway and seat, on average each seat costs between $75 and $175.

Social circles in and around Metro are noticing more and more people headed to the races these days. The trend is something that doesn't surprise Gary, though for him, it's nothing new either.

Gary grew up reading magazines about the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing and went to see his first race, the Daytona 500, in 1964.

"It was pretty overwhelming because I wasn't very old then," he says.

This sparked a life long love of attending the races. But the then young man who had recently started racing himself got something extra out of it.

"The cars had more technology back then than what we had locally," he says. "It was mind blowing."

Gary now has a stock car, a regular looking sedan equipped for racing, that he races all around the Maritimes and a Legends car, a car with a 30s style body and a motorcycle engine, he races around the region and takes with him to race in the southern United States.

Gary, 64, says he doesn't plan on quitting the sport he loves anytime soon.

"As long as my health holds out and my reflexes are half decent and I'm not creating havoc out there I'm going to keep at it," he says.

Since seeing his first Daytona 500, Gary has made a point of going back for the race almost every year.

"I might of missed two or three years but that's all," he says.

Gary still goes to Daytona every year as well as races in Charlotte, N.C., Martinsville, Va. Atlanta, and the two annual races in Loudon, N.H.

"I used to go to the Pocono 500 (in Long Pond, Pa.) for six or seven years, and I had season's tickets in Talladega (Ala.)" he says.

That is only part of the list of cities Gary has seen NASCAR races in. The California races are some of the only ones he has never made it to.

Gary has also seen Formula 1 races live in Montreal and Toronto, but prefers NASCAR mostly because he grew up with it, though he also prefers the oval track that most NASCAR races drive on as opposed to the road courses of Formula 1.

But what it really comes down to is that Gary loves to watch racing.

"I guess I just enjoy watching the speed," he says adding that he has also liked watching NASCAR grow. "The facilities have changes so dramatically. I mean the sport has grown over the last 35 years immensely."

Gary clearly gets more out of watching the races than the average person does.

"There's a lot to it," he says. "Being an amateur race car driver, I realize and know and understand what they're talking about."

What many would see as simply one car passing another or car tires being changed, Gary sees as a difficult driving technique or fine pit crew work.

With so much NASCAR watching experience, Gary has had plenty of chances to decide where the best place to sit is.

"On the super speed ways you have to sit up high," he says, "(and) on the short track if you sit half up you can see the entire show."

He says prefers to have a seat where you can see the entire track because the big screens fill you in on the pit stops, and provide closer up instant replays.

When people tell him they want to go to their first race and ask him for advice he suggests the short tracks like in Bristol, Tenn. or Dover, Del.

"The smaller the track, the tighter it is and the more finesse you've got to have to get your car around," he says.