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NOTE: This is a narrative description of Andrea's
stock car
driving experience
at California Speedway.
You can view the
pictures by following the SLIDESHOW links from the main
directory for
AandJSward ( http://www.aandjsward.com
).
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Sunday, August 13,
2000, I attended the Richard Petty Driving
Experience ( http://www.1800bepetty.com/ )
at California
Speedway (http://www.californiaspeedway.com/
and http://www.californiaspeedway.com/CAGrands.html
).
This program lets
you drive a 600-horsepower NASCAR-style
stock car over 100
mph on an actual racing track.
California Speedway
is a 2-mile D-oval track.
It is banked 14
degrees in the turns,
11 degrees on the
front stretch, and
3 degrees on the
back straight away.
( http://www.nascar.com/tracks/california/dia.html
)
You can purchase
various "experiences" and I got the
Rookie
Experience. This is a 3-hour
session.
There are longer
sessions and sessions that actually
teach racing
techniques. The Rookie Experience is
more like fantasy
fulfillment than actual racing.
The only
requirements for the Rookie Experience are:
1. You must have
enough cash, or your credit card must
be good, or your check must not bounce.
2. You must be tall
enough to climb in the car unassisted.
The window area (stock cars have no doors)
is 15 inches
high, 30 inches wide, and 36 inches off the
ground.
3. You must have a
valid drivers license.
Just arriving for
the session was a thrill. We drove up to
the main gate and
were directed to the perimeter road.
Just
driving around the
outside of a real race track gives you
goosebumps. Then we drove through the tunnel that
goes under the
raceway itself and into the sacred infield!
We emerged from the
tunnel in the garage area. This is the
area where during
races the cars are parked and the teams work.
This area is the
nerve center on race weekends. During
races
this is an
ultra-restricted area that requires all sorts of
special passes and credentials
-- and we were there!!!
To see this area up
close and personal was a thrill in
itself. If this had been all we had done on Sunday, I
would have
considered it a very fulfilling day!
I got
registered. (For those who are
wondering, my husband
Jeff went along to
take pictures, but there is no way he would
ever climb into a
race car. I was kind of thinking he
might
want to do the
"Ride Along Experience" where he would be a
passenger with a
professional driver, but he declined.)
Then I got my
driving suit. It was really cool (well,
actually really hot)
-- I did not want to turn it in at the
end of the day!
Training came
next. First we had classroom
training.
This consisted of a
video and a lecture. Then we got
into a van and were
driven around the track.
The van driver
explained to us where to shift (the cars
were a standard-H
with 4 gears). Basically, you shifted up
through the gears as
you were leaving pit road and accelerating
on the apron. Once you had merged onto the race track in
4th
gear, you stayed
there the whole time and did not downshift
until you returned
to pit road.
The van driver
explained to us when to use our brakes.
You brake on the
apron to decelerate when returning to
the pits and on pit
road when parking in your pit stall.
You do not use the
brakes at all on the race course unless
the yellow flag
comes out signaling there has been an accident
on the track. (No, you do not apply the brakes on a turn --
in fact, you apply the
gas going into the turn and continue
to accelerate
through the arc of the turn.)
The van driver
explained the best line to take to get optimum
speed and to
efficiently utilize the set up of the car.
(Car
set up refers to
things like tire pressure, springs, track bar
adjustments,
etc. All of these things determine what
kind of
line the car is most
stable in and determine the natural line
the car wants to
take.) To assist in remembering the best
line,
there were painted
squares on the track at various spots.
The goal is to hit
these marks on every lap.
Then we climbed into
the car. Seating position in a NASCAR
stock car is
interesting if you are under 5 feet tall.
For
safety reasons,
seats in race cars are bolted to the floor.
Therefore, in their
fleet of cars, they had some cars with the
seats far away and
some cars with the seats up close. Not
too surprising, I
got the car with the seat mounted closest to
the windshield. Unfortunately, even that was not close enough
for me to depress
the pedals all the way to the floor (something
the clutch
demanded). The track workers ended up
inserting two
seat cushions behind
me to get me close enough to work the
pedals
correctly. Then I got strapped in. The safety belts
are a five-point
system. The goal is to have you in the
seat
so firmly that if
there is a crash you do not move at all.
The straps of the
restraint system are tight and bordering on
too tight for a
correct adjustment. Another feature of
NASCAR
cars: steering wheels are removable. The quarters are so
cramped that the
driver gets in first. After the driver
is
positioned and
strapped in, the steering wheel is attached.
Unfortunately, I was
so far forward, there was not enough room
for a standard steering
wheel, so they had to install a small
size steering wheel.
The last part of the
training took place once we were in the car.
They showed us the
light for low oil pressure and what to do if
it comes on (turn
off the engine pronto, coast to the apron, and
stay inside the car
while you wait for the truck to come).
They showed us the
fire extinguisher equipment and what to do if
there is a fire
(turn off the engine pronto, and pull a pin to
activate the
extinguisher system, coast to the apron, and get out
of the car as
quickly as you can. Extinguishers are
permanently
mounted in the
cockpit and when the pin is pulled, the area is
automatically
flooded with spray. This virtually
hands-free
system is very
similar to what is in actual NASCAR cars.
Fire
is about the only
thing fearless NASCAR drivers are afraid of.)
They went over again
the rpms to watch for (2,000 before
shifting into 1st
and beginning to move, 4,000 for each shift
up to 4th). They also went over the signals from the flagman
at the start/finish
line. On each lap, there would be
signals
indicating if we
should speed up, slow down, or change our line.
Unlike actual NASCAR
drivers who are in constant radio contact
with spotters, the
flag signals were our only source of feedback
and communication
while we were on the track.
Then came the
drive. The most frequently asked
question I get
is, "Was there
someone riding with you?" The
answer is no.
The drivers are
alone in the cars. It is a *real*
driving
experience. My first lap was kind of slow -- *only*
119 mph.
I was still learning
the line. Plus, the walls are kind of
intimidating at high
speeds so I was too much in the center
of the track. The flagman gave me the signal to move
farther
up the track. When I did get higher on the track, I
understood.
The car loved the
high line! That was where it wanted to
be.
It let me know this
because the ride actually smoothed out and
the steering became
easier. (Easier is a relative term. It
takes a lot of upper
body strength to get 600 horses to go
where you wanted
them to go. I switched from the standard
steering wheel grip
of left hand at 10 o-clock and right hand at
2 o'clock to an 11
o'clock / 4 o'clock position so I could get
more of my body into
the left hand turns the track required.)
Part of the
exhilaration of stock car driving is since you are
strapped in so
securely in the seat, you are at one with the
car -- you are
actually part of the car, and you and it are
all functioning as
one unit -- everything the car feels
and does, you feel
and do! We are in Bionic Woman territory
here -- and I *loved*
it! After learning the lesson that a
higher line near the
wall is the desired path, the next thing
to learn is to trust
your tires. NASCAR tires have no
tread.
Consequently, 100%
of the tire is in contact with the track
to give you maximum
grip. Intellectually I knew this, but
viscerally, I had my
doubts. On my third lap, I finally
took a corner at
really high speed, accelerating all the way
and almost getting a
sling-shot propulsion onto the straightaway.
I had really
expected to hear the tires squeal at the peak of
the arc and to feel
some slip (my Honda Civic would have done
that!). Instead, the tires stuck securely! What a rush!
This gave me the
confidence I needed for the rest of the laps.
Except for the first
lap, the flagman waved me green (doin'
great!) on all of
the other laps. The highest speed I
obtained
was a *132 mph*. To put this in perspective, it is a 2-mile
track, so that means
I was doing 1 minute laps!
Then came the worst
part of the day -- when I passed by the
start/finish line
the flagman was waving the checkered flag.
No, that did not
mean I had won a race, it meant my laps were
done and it was time
to come into the pits so someone else
could drive my car
(by this time, I thought of it as *my* car).
I pulled down the
track and then onto the apron. About at
turn
3 I put the car in
neutral and coasted onto pit road, stopping
in the designated
pit stall. To say I did not want to get
out
of the car was an
understatement!
After all of the
drivers had done their laps (for safety reasons,
there are only two
Rookie Experience drivers on the track at a
time -- more
advanced experiences have more drivers and they
drive closer
together), there was a "graduation" ceremony.
We got our diplomas
indicating we had successfully completed
the Rookie
Experience. The diplomas included our
top speed.
We also got our
report cards -- computer-generated lap-by-lap
performance stats
giving top speed and top rpm.
As we were leaving,
I made Jeff's day by asking if I could
do the driving on
the way home. He said, "NO!"
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Appendix: If any of you are interested in a race car
experience,
I wholeheartedly
endorse the Richard Petty Driving Experience.
They had a very
professional operation every step of the way.
Their office staff were
efficient and pleasant. They sized up
people pretty fast
and offered reassurance to those feeling
anxious and shared
the enthusiasm of those feeling excited.
These people do
sessions probably 250 days a year.
Yet they understood
that for most customers it would be a
once-in-a-lifetime
experience. Consequently, they kept
things
fresh and treated
every customer special and with respect.
They did a great job
of maintaining their cars. They had a
full staff of
mechanics and every once in a while would pull a
car back to the
garage area to work on it. They also had
tire
specialists who
examined the tires carefully after each run.
If there was too
much wear, tires were immediately replaced.
The instructors and
on-track personnel assured that everything
was safe and perfect
before students pulled onto the track.
One of the pictures
Jeff took shows 4 people gathered around my
car checking it out
and checking me out before the run. This
was typical. The friendliness and professionalism of the
entire Petty
organization helped to make this a great experience.
I can think of
nothing that made me upset or irritated the
whole 4 hours we
were there. In today's business world
when it
seems cordial,
knowledgeable service is a thing of the past,
having such a
positive experience was a real treat.
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