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Super Speedway -------------------------------
After we went through this and several laps, we came back in and received a brief on the car itself. We were shown how to get in and exit the car (as they have no doors, the body is one piece except for the trunk and hood), where the gauges where and what they were (oil temp, tachometer, water temp, oil pressure, fuel, and voltage meter). You were shown how the five point harness worked when strapped in, the fire extinguishers and how to activate them, the removable steering wheel, and how to egress in case of an emergency. You don't have a window, as there is a nylon safety net that is moved when getting in and out of the car. After all this, we were now ready to begin our racing experience. I have to admit, that I didn't sleep at all Tuesday night in anticipation and I was a little tired. In a few moments, that would no longer be a problem.... Most everyone in my class were nervous at the unexpected and anticipation of getting behind the wheel of this car, but there were a few students who had done this before and looked like it was just another day at the track. When my name was called to get ready as I was on deck, my heart began to start pounding pretty hard. Walking out to you car and getting in, it really began to start doing the Lambada and working its way up my throat. The pit road crew then strap you in very tightly and start your car. Hearing a 600hp engine light up and just feeling the vibration of that powerful car in idle heightened my awareness and focus because now it became serious. Once your instructor is in position (as you follow your instructor all the time from 3-5 car lengths away) the pit road crew taps on your windowsill and tells you to go. Letting out the clutch and feeling the car start moving was pretty motivating. We continued down pit road onto the apron accelerating to merge onto the track. It's all choreographed, as there are three students and three drivers on the track at any one time so you are watching your instructor who is watching the next tandem to go by and picking up speed all the while. Once the other cars are out of turn two and on the high line against the wall, your instructor takes you onto the bottom of the race track and mashes the accelerator while climbing up the race track so you can enter turn three. Pressing down on that accelerator and feeling those 600hp kick pressed you into the back of your seat. Awesome. That first round of 8 laps, you are so inundated with so many stimuli that it is hard to describe. It took about a lap and a half before I started breathing again. Getting down the interval between you and your instructor is the hardest thing to do at the beginning, but is very important. Being able to maintain the distance between the cars tells your instructor that you are comfortable with the speed and are in control of your vehicle. This will allow the instructor to pick up speed. Learning the line and hitting your marks was tough as well simply because you are overwhelmed with everything else going on around you, but at the same time you are very focused. After the starter gives you the checkered flag on your last lap, you follow the instructor down onto the apron and onto pit road again. As I said before, the cars are set up to turn to the left, so even though you are going straight, the car naturally wants to pull hard to the left. So here you are, hurling down the back straightaway, a mere 3 feet from the wall, turning the steering wheel to the right, to keep the car going straight. It certainly didn't natural at first to steer into the wall to go straight. At the end of the back straightaway, you hit your mark to enter turn three. This is a quick hard entrance as you are on the high side of the track and go immediately to the bottom of the line, again @3 feet from the apron. Coming out of turn four, you smoothly transition onto the tri-oval portion of the track. There are several marks that you have to hit to set yourself up for the entrance into turn one. We broke for the day. After I got home, I was pretty tired, as driving this type of car is physically challenging and mentally draining. You are so focused on what you are doing and your heightened situational awareness gets your adrenaline pumping. We came back again for the last two segments picking up where we left of the day prior.After a brief drivers meeting, I was number four in the rotation and went out to get strapped in my number red 27 Pontiac Grand Prix and wait for my turn. The tolerance level and margin for error are now getting much lower because the speeds are increasing. After a couple warm up laps, I could tell that my instructor was picking up speed with each lap. You really don't notice it so much on the straight-aways, but you really notice in going into and coming out of the turns. Obviously with everything speeding up, your focus is that much more centered. The final segment is where I achieved my best speed, 163 mph. One thing that I should mention is that these cars are designed to go fast, and the faster you go the smoother the ride it is. The transition in and out of the turns is more natural that it was at the earlier slower speeds. Once the checkered flag waved bringing me in I was so disappointed because I was though with the session. I wished it would just keep going. I can say that I am definitely doing this again as the Richard Petty NASCAR Driving Experience is at 18 tracks across the country. The next step is the Advanced Course, which is a 40-lap 1/2 day course where you pick up where we left off today. Some of the instructors were telling us that you would basically go as fast as you are comfortable with in reaching speeds of 185 mph!! For those who think that these professional drivers aren't athletes, think again. It is very mentally demanding and physically challenging. Although the temperatures were comfortable for our session, one of the instructors worked on Randy Lajoie's 1996 NASCAR Busch Series Championship as a mechanic and told me that for one race, the temperature inside the car was 187 degrees. The metal dash was so hot, you could fry an egg on it. I've heard that as an average, the inside temp is well over 120 degrees. The heat generated by that engine is enormous and with the car being metal, it is one huge heat conductor. I can't even imagine driving at 190 mph, with 43 other cars a few feet coupled with that intense heat. I have a great appreciation, and respect, for just how tough it is and how talented those drivers really are.
We also had the instructors ride with us for several laps and then traded places to see how a professional driver drive the course. There was a distinct difference in the way we drove and the very aggressive way they drove. To drive it correctly, you should squeal the tires during every brake and turn as you are using the maximum that the tires can give. By the end of Sun, you could tell a definite increase in confidence and speed among the students. WE learned how to threshold brake, buy utilizing @5% of the brake during braking, just short of locking them up. When you go into a corner, you threshold brake at the right time so that you are at the desired speed to begin your turn to allow y ou to carry the right speed through the corner, all the while hitting your marks to achieve the best turn radius. It took quite a bit of practice to figure out where the right spot to begin braking because as you are going faster and faster, your entry speed increases the distance you begin braking. Towards the end, there is a little straight on the road course that has a lazy s turn where you are on full throttle the entire time and come up to a 180 degree turn!. You are doing @100 mph and need to brake to @40 mph. If that does not get your heart running. It don't know what will I learned how the heel/ toe shift and also when downshifting, to blip the gas to increase rpms right before you engage the lower gear. That took some getting use to as if you are not careful, you get what is called brake gas, where half you foot is on the brake trying to show you down and th other half is on the gas inadvertently. The gas and brake pedals sure right next to one another The fourth day of the school was an optional chassis day, where we went over the finer points of setting up a race car with the geometry that compliments the driving style the school taught us. It was amazing to see thousands of an inch adjustments and how those affected the handling of a car on the track. Very subtle and seemingly minor changes can have drastic impacts, either positive or negative, on the track. Another worthwhile course.
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