captkidd
04-20-2005, 02:40 PM
My wife bought me a Rookie Experience at the Richard Petty Driving Experience for Christmas last year (what a great wife; absolute best gift I've ever received). I went to Lowe's Motor Speedway yesterday for my drive, and it was awesome! Two friends of mine went too, and we really had a great time.
I decided to go for the Ride-Along first so I could get an idea of what to expect. They strap you in beside a professional driver who really likes to go fast; I think we hit about 165 mph and he was pouring it on!
Unfortunately, my own driving experience was somewhat of a disappointment; not the driving itself, but my results. Before we started, they took us around the track in a 15-passenger van and showed us the deceleration and acceleration points, as well as the racing lines to follow, correct hand position for the corners, etc. However, I was #24 out of 26 people, so it was about 2 hours later that I actually got to go out in the car. By that time I had forgotten practically everything they told me to do (and not to do). My lap times and top speed were a lot slower than I had hoped, so I was pretty bummed afterwards.
Still, it was a great day. Beautiful weather, awesome race car driving experience, and a ton of fun. I'm ready to go back, and as soon as I can afford it I'm going to go back and redeem myself. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes to go fast and turn left (I remember several of you saying you've done this at other tracks as well); not every day you get to drive something with 500-600 hp and not worry about getting arrested.
I decided to go for the Ride-Along first so I could get an idea of what to expect. They strap you in beside a professional driver who really likes to go fast; I think we hit about 165 mph and he was pouring it on!
Unfortunately, my own driving experience was somewhat of a disappointment; not the driving itself, but my results. Before we started, they took us around the track in a 15-passenger van and showed us the deceleration and acceleration points, as well as the racing lines to follow, correct hand position for the corners, etc. However, I was #24 out of 26 people, so it was about 2 hours later that I actually got to go out in the car. By that time I had forgotten practically everything they told me to do (and not to do). My lap times and top speed were a lot slower than I had hoped, so I was pretty bummed afterwards.
Still, it was a great day. Beautiful weather, awesome race car driving experience, and a ton of fun. I'm ready to go back, and as soon as I can afford it I'm going to go back and redeem myself. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes to go fast and turn left (I remember several of you saying you've done this at other tracks as well); not every day you get to drive something with 500-600 hp and not worry about getting arrested.