Down in the Pits: Be a race car driver… for a price
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The most famous one I can think of is Buck Baker’s Driving School which many of the young drivers have graduated from. Make no mistake: Buck Baker’s School was not one for beginners. He taught the pros how to really drive. Jeff Gordon and many of the others that are on the Winston Cup Circuit right now are graduates from that school.
Those aren’t the guys I’m talking about. I’m talking about the everyday Joe that sits over here and watches it on TV or from the grandstands. I only know two people that have done this and they both did it a different way. Jackie Powers, Red Powers’ wife, got a great Mother’s Day gift one year. She got to go to, of all places, Bristol and take a driving course on the most unforgiving one-half mile track known to mankind. She loved it. The other person did a ride-along at Walt Disney World in Orlando at the Richard Petty Driving Experience. He is a Judge from Dekalb County, and he told me it was the most exciting thing he had ever done. Either way all of these unforgettable experiences are out there at a price. Richard Petty’s Driving Experience gives you a chance to do it your way, as one of those hamburger commercials goes. If you want to, you can get behind the wheel or in a passenger seat. You know, one of those 600 horsepower jobs that run up to speeds of 165 miles-per-hour.
Don’t be mistaken now. Richard Petty isn’t going to be the one to take you on the ride, but he sure provides the first-class pros to take you on this excursion. He’s got more than 20 locations across the United States. A few of those in this area include Atlanta, Bristol, Darlington, Daytona, Kentucky, Charlotte, Talladega, and more importantly and closer to us, is Nashville. There are many others, but these are just to name a few.
One of the ride-along programs starts from about $89 up to $125. After that you step up to the next level which is a “you’re in it, you drive it” which starts as low as $199 on up to the advanced course that runs nearly $3,000. Now when you get to that $3,000 course, you’re required to have quite a bit of experience behind the wheel because these cars that they’re turning over to you aren’t a piece of junk. They’re real cars that run or have run on a NASCAR circuit. The only difference is that instead of running close to 900 horsepower, they’re running about 600, but believe me, that can be extremely fast.
There’s one driving school that’s even at Dover, Delaware on the Monster-Mile. Most of the NASCAR drivers would pay not to have to run Dover, and it’s hard for me to believe that they can have a driving school on that track because it’s one of the most unforgiving tracks on the circuit. Their ride-along price is $75 and it has many different phases after you get out of the passenger seat. If you want to be the real driver, the price starts around $300 and goes up to around $850 or so. I for one would rather ride in a plane with Jack Rouch than tangle with that place.
Obviously none of this stuff is cheap as you’ve seen above, so maybe the best way to get your financial start on this is to keep entering the Southern Standard Winston Cup contest which is featured each week. By this time there’s no telling how high that prize has gotten. As you know, if no one wins by picking the top three cars in order, all of the entries that have been submitted during the year will be put in a hat and a winner will be drawn to get the whole pie. I know it sounds like a long shot, but you can always do like Duane Sherrill does during the Best of the Best and stuff the entry box.
You’ve sure got a better chance of winning this than you do the lottery.
There’s even a crew school. You know one of those schools that will teach you how to change all the tires in about four seconds and gas it up in two and then head for the golf course until the driver comes back in for his next four tire pit stop. But one of the darndest schools that I’ve ever heard of is a new college that has started. Elon University offers a very popular “Business of NASCAR” course and has been doing so for the last nine years. This course has a wide range of topics, of course all related to the NASCAR scene. This place teaches you how to be one of the men behind the men, and with NASCAR becoming so increasingly popular, there are more and more of these schools popping up. So if you’re looking for a NASCAR career, you might look into one of these situations and instead of being a spectator, you may be participating.
Obviously none of this stuff is cheap as you’ve seen above, so maybe the best way to get your financial start on this is to keep entering the Southern Standard Winston Cup contest which is featured each week. By this time there’s no telling how high that prize has gotten. As you know if no one wins by picking the top three cars in order, all of the entries that have been submitted during the year will be put in a hat or I guess in a drum by as many as have been turned in and a winner drawn who will get the whole pie. I know it sounds like a long shot, but you can always do like Duane Sherrill does during the Best of the Best and go out and buy all the newspapers you can buy, fill in the best you can on the winners, hope nobody wins and you’ve got more entries in than the next guy.
You’ve sure got a better chance of winning this than you do the lottery.