Richard Petty Driving experience

[KenP]

I did the RPDE at Richmond this past Friday and I've got to tell you, WOW!

http://www.1800bepetty.com/home.aspx

RPDE did a great job and it was a blast. There were many family and friends there for the participants and RPDE actually encourages you to bring as many people as you'd like. You actually get to drive through the tunnel and park in the infield.

The 8am session was rain delayed, so my 11am class had 37 drivers in it. I was 33rd out.

I couldn't believe how slow some people were driving. We were told to stick between 3-5 car lengths behind your instructor and go! If the instructor's car stuck in the turn, yours would too.

If you were slow, you were given a flag to tell you to speed up. If you didn't, the instructor slowed down to your speed and tried to bring your speed up again.

I swear, people paid all that money to cruise around the track at 60mph. Sheeezzz....

Well, I finally got out there and just stuck to the rear bumper of my instructor. He had to wave me off twice because I was too close.

When I was done, I just kept thinking to myself, "Please be faster then 70mph, please, please, please... Gawd, I hope I didn't screw this up...".

We were told at the beginning the target max top speed on the 3/4 mile D-oval was 110 with a lap time of 30 sec flat.

Oh yeah! When I got my certificate at the closing ceremony I was second fastest posting a lap of 30.28 followed by a 30.25 with top speed of 109.25. The quickest guy was 30.17.

I'm pretty sure I had him on the last lap, but I ran up on the instructor entering 3, and ran up on him again at the finish. Had the instructor been lower on the track at the finish, I could have stayed high and in the gas a little longer, but to go low could have been a problem since I would have been super close to him as he entered 1.

Overall, I rate it a 10+. I can't wait to do it again and I'm thinking about The King's Experience at Lowe's. Maybe by the end of the year if all the stars align.

If anyone is interested, or if you just have questions, let me know. It was well worth it and I can't recommend it enough!

Almost forgot, I ordered a DVD that will show my location on the track, view out the windshield, view of me, and of course there was a microphone! Hummm, I wonder what I was muttering....

[wpage]

Sounds like a blast!