Dec 5th I was able to do the Richard Petty driving experience. There where several different packages to chose from, The one I had was the "Experience of a Lifetime" package. This was 30 laps around the track 8 warm up, then two more sets of 11. The track was 1 mile and had 7-10° banking. The cars I got to drive where Winston Cup style cars. They had a T-66 4 speed tranny, and about 660HP, tube frame about 3200lbs, 9" rear, V-8 358ci. and ran on high octane.

Here are some of the cars they had in the garage. This is where we went over general operations, like how to start the car, use the fire extinguishers, getting in and out of the windows, removal of steering wheel, hooking the safety net and to answer any simple questions we had about the car.

Then we went for a tour of the track in the van to get us familiar with the turns and where we should be decelerating and accelerating, and to give us an idea of how we will be pitting in. Then I watched as they brought the cars we would be driving up to the pits.

Afterwards I had to stand around and wait for everyone else to go, all but the 3 people I came with where only doing 8 laps, so they went first. Once my name was called I was finally able to get my harness and helmet on.

Then before I knew it I was sitting in the car waiting to get the show on the road, literally. That's when they snap the in car photo, and make sure your safety harness was buckled and secure.

Off I go, at first it was kind of overwhelming but once you did a couple of laps it goes by in a blur. If you've ever seen the in car video feeds, then your only experiencing a tenth of what its like to really be in the car. The sound of the engine was all around me and I could tell that there is power just waiting to be tapped. I could take the corners as hard as I liked and the car just stuck to the ground with no signs of it losing traction. Then when I exited the turn I would punch the throttle to the floor. Even in 4th gear the car accelerated like it was in 1st. On it hard all the way to the next corner. They said that you shouldn't need to use the brake at all but I was coming up behind my pace car so quick in the corners that I used them just so I wouldn't get so close.

It was all over before I knew it and I was back on my own two feet again unfortunately. Everybody gathered inside to get our graduation certificates and our lap times. I was looking around at some of the others that only had 8 laps and saw that most didn't even get over 120 or so. The top speed was an estimate based on my lap times. Oh though it said I had a top speed of 130 MPH I am sure there where times when I was well over that. As you can see on my sheet that  my speeds where higher the more laps I ran.

Like I said I had a pretty good time overall. If you happen to have $1300 and want to drive 30 laps in a Winston cup style car here ya go. The 8 lap run is something like $380. And a ride along is $80.  The worst part was getting into your own car again to drive home at a leisurely 55 MPH!

Here is the link if you would like more info on it - http://www.1800bepetty.com/html/index_html.html

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