Drove a NASCAR on Saturday

[lethal300c]

Morning eveyone. About 2 months ago I heard about the Richard Petty driving experience from one of my vendors and booked to go on the 23rd (this last Saturday) at Kentucky Speedway. I did the Kings Experience which was 8 laps in a 650 HP NASCAR, then instruction on performance, then another 10 laps. My wife did the ride along program (with professional driver). All I can say is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! While it is a bit pricey, it is WELL worth the cost. One of the best parts for me was, in sticking true to MOPAR, my car was a Charger!! My top speed was 145 MPH (they control this pretty well) and the Mrs. was at 165 in her ride along. Below are a couple of pics. I also ordered the in car DVD of the entire ride, which will take 2-4 weeks to receive. If anyone is interested, I will post a link to it here after I receive (should be much more entertaining then the pics).

I would love to hear from anyone who has done this with their experiences. Outside of skydiving, it is one of the more exciting things I have done. I am including the link to the website if anyone has any interest. They do it at 20 different tracks in the US. Have a great day!!!

Keith

Richard Petty Driving Experience

[yamabob]

Awesome.Glad you had a great experience and time. I know several people that ave done it and they also loved it.
Now we just gotta step ya up in the performance tier and get ya on a bike on the track.

[marlinspike]

Do they limit you to 145 or is that just as fast as you were able to get it on the track?

[lethal300c]

Originally Posted by marlinspike

Do they limit you to 145 or is that just as fast as you were able to get it on the track?

They do limit you, with how the program works (not that I am disappointed at all). Their top end program will get the driver up to a max of 165 MPH. The car certainly had more in her and I would have loved to push it.

[marlinspike]

I've had a Porsche 911 up to 176 on the Autobahn before, though obviously it didn't accelerate like a stock car. I need to find me some sort of formula 1 car experience.

[Northern Rider]

It's great to see members get in a track experience.

Gives one a new perspective on motorsports when you are actually at speed inside a race car.

[MoePar]

It is a great experience. I did it last summer at In Indy at the Brick Yard. It was quite a thrill. The only way it could have been better is if I could have driven my car.

[joey]

I did the Petty class about 5 years ago at Las Vegas Speedway. Did the 2 day 80 lap class. I think it cost $2,400, or there abouts. Wife spent about $800 on the 3 lap ride alongs. Top speed was around 155mph.
Petty has you follow an instructor car.

Also did the Skip Barber 2 day 80 lap class at California Fontana track. It cost about the same. Skip Barber has someone ride shotgun instead of following someone. I liked this better because you can take her up to top speed on the first lap instead of being constrained by a leader car.
All the ride along guy does is thumbs up or down if he wants to control your speed. I also kept hitting the speed limiter in the Skip Barber class, which was a red light on the dash. I think top speed was 165mph.

Vegas was a lot more fun because it is a smaller 1.5 mile track and the G forces were a lot stronger than at California, which is a 2 mile track.

If anyone takes a class, I would recommend a shorter track. The longer tracks get a little boring cause you driving at top speed most of the time in a straight line.
The shorter tracks you can really push the car to the edge and experience a lot more g forces.