Russell's Race Car Experience


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In August, I received a gift certificate from my wife for a ride along in a NASCAR type race car at the Chicagoland Speedway through the Richard Petty Driving Experience. After lapping the track and reaching speeds of 160 MPH, I got out of the car and said "I'm coming back to drive!" On September 26th, we returned to the Chicagoland Speedway, and this time I got to drive!

Setup

We arrived at 7:30 AM. My paperwork was checkout, I was signed in and given a racing suit to put on. There were 35 drivers in that morning's session. I was told that was a large group due to it being the last session of the year at Chicagoland. The size of the group didn't mean any less attention or any less driving time though.

Training

We watched a brief movie, met our instructors and were divided into 4 groups. Each group got in a van with their instructor to take a tour of the track.


The hight of the van made the banking of the turns stand out even more.	While waiting to drive, we were in the pit lane area (where most of the photos were taken).

The track is kind of a tri-oval, 1.5 miles around. The turns are banked at 18 degrees, the front straight is at 11 degrees and the back straight at 5 degrees. Actually, the back straight is slightly curved. If you are interested in more details about the track, check out the Chicagoland Speedway web page.

As our instructor drove us around the track in the van, he talked about following distances, deceleration markers, acceleration markers, the 5 different flags we may see, shifting points, the hand signal ... it went on and on. At times we stopped on the track to address particular areas. At 18 degrees in the turns, the van was on quite a bit of an angle. Not a word was wasted on us ... how are were we supposed to remember all this stuff?

After the van ride, we took a tour of one of the cars. More information was given to us, most of it having to do with safety such as how to use the fire extinguishing system, how to get out of the car by removing the belts, steering wheel and window netting ... what to do if you have a flat, lose oil pressure, can't slow down coming into the pits ... If you are starting to get the idea that this is some serious stuff, you're right.


The tour of the car (unfortunately in this picture, we are looking at the car behind the #39 car.)	This is a picture of me getting my picture taken. The staff takes one like this and one in the car. Those can be purchased from them.

Waiting

After receiving all our instructions, there was some free time, so I took some pictures. This was the only time we could wander freely on pit road.


You can't see the steering wheel because it is sitting on the roof. It is removable so you can get in and out of the car.	I had to stick the camera in the car and just hope for a good photograph. I'm glad it came out . Since I didn't have time to look at the gages while I was driving ... I can look at them now.	Another "take a chance" picture. This is a little bit lower than my view was when sitting in the car. The glare is exaggerated, but going into turn one, the glare was about this strong during my run.


No room for back seat drivers.	Out on the track, the cars get even closer to the ground due to the air pushing them down

The car I rode in back in August..	This is the car I got to drive.

With all the instructor said, and all of the excitement, the best advice he gave was "don't over think this, its just a car".

In Line

I was to drive 25th. In the mean time I talked with others (especial people that just drove), and took some rough time measurements to see the lap times people were getting. What really had me wound up wasn't fear, but the extreme excitement of the moment and wanting do everything as well as I could to take full advantage of it all.

When they called my name, it was time to put on the harness and helmet. You step into the harness and then the helmet is strapped to the harness (another safety item to limit head movement in case of ... ah ... an incident.)

Since my mind was racing (pun intended) at that time,
the helmet and harness also helped keep my head
from exploding off of my body.

My Turn

When it was time to get into the car, I was walked out to the car and waited while the previous driver got out.

That's me on the far right.
Part of being a race driver is looking cool ...
I don't look cool in this shot ... have to work
on that for next time.

Getting into the car is like climbing into a funnel. The window is big enough to easily get into, but as you sit yourself down, things get small quickly. The left side of my harness got got caught on the left bolster on the seat, so my left side wouldn't slide down into the seat. The Petty crew member helped me out and I sank into the seat. Fortunately it fit like a glove and everything was in easy reach. I was buckled in, a quick picture was taken from the right side window, I put the car in 1st, the crew member started the engine, put up the window net and off I went following behind the instructor.


Climbing in the car ...	... still climbing in the car.

The crew member puts on the steering wheel, buckles the 5 point seatbelt, starts the engine and puts up the window netting.	There I go! Once I started moving my focus was completely on driving. My world consisted of the car I was driving, the instructors car, and the track ... that's all.

The instructor set the pace. The goal is to be 3 to 5 car lengths behind the instructor at all times. If you get too close you get a "wave off" (the instructor waiving his arm back and forth). We were told to get at least 3 wave offs to make sure we were close enough. If you were too close for too long, you would get the yellow flag and the instructor would slow down until you maintained the proper following distance. I got 4 or 5 wave offs, but I did not get a yellow flag. My wave offs came at the entrance to turns 1 and 3 and surprisingly at the start finish line. I am not sure what I could have done to go faster except pull up on the instructor coming out of the turns. Maybe he didn't speed up because coming out of the turns I never got as close to the wall as he was. Something to think about ... for next time.

These cars are a blast! They sound great, look cool, stick to the track like glue, and take off out of the corner like mad. "Trust the car" was another piece of advice the instructor gave. It was easy to trust it. The acceleration point was mid corner. Accelerating out of the corner, the car just went. I am sure at the cars limit things would be different, but at the speeds I did, things were starting to feel very comfortable and even familiar as the laps went on.

As I was driving, all I remember hearing was the engine. It was loud. Going through the turns, I felt the g-forces like I had never felt before. It is amazing that professional race drivers do this for entire races, at speeds way faster than I was going and with other cars inches away. Just amazing.

After the last lap, exiting turn 2, we slowed and dropped down to the apron on the backstretch to make our way into the pits.


Getting out.	Oh yea!

Here is a scan of my time sheet. My fastest lap time was 45.24 seconds with an average speed of 119.37 MPH. Since you go faster in the straights and slower in the corners that means your top speed is obviously more than your average speed. Using a formula, they calculated my top speed for that lap at 139 MPH.

Conclusion

What a blast. I highly recommend it. If you've ever thought of doing something like this, do it! Now that the bug has bitten me, I am looking forward to other chances to do more driving of this type. There are plenty of opportunities including actual driving/racing schools. An affordable and fun way to experience racing is via karting at such places as Chicago Indoor Racing.

This crude panoramic shot is from the road in the infield looking towards the
grandstand (the road is straight although it looks like it turns in this picture.)
As you go towards the right of the picture, you get to the tunnel ( next picture).

The way in and out of the infield is through this tunnel that goes under that track and is located between turns 3 and 4. Notice the banking of the track.
Bye bye!

Updated: October 17, 2004
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