The Pocono Driving Experience
What a rush! Over 180 MPH on the 2.5 mile track at Pocono Raceway! The program was extremely well run. We began our classroom instruction right on time, followed by an up close inspection of a NASCAR style car. After a quick romp around the track in a van for familiarization, it was time to go racing. Some folks opted to go for a ride in one of the cars with an instructor first, but about half of us went straight to the cars to run. I only sat for a few minutes on pit road before I was assigned to a car and got belted in. After a brief delay (an instructor's car ran out of fuel), I was lined up behind an instructor with another student behind me. The instructor led out and I followed, but the poor guy behind me kept stalling on pit road, so I got the instructor all to myself. The first lap is held steady at 5000RPM (around 100MPH) in high (4th) gear, the second lap is at 5500RPM (around 115MPH), then it's as fast as you can go, keeping up with the instructor. By the last two laps, I was cranking out upper 8000's, somewhere a little over 180MPH. Oh, did I mention I got to blow past five other cars? The biggest learning experience is trusting the car to hug the turns at high speeds; with the high g-forces, your natural instinct is to come off the gas to bring the car "under control." But when you learn/feel how much traction the car has, you start taking more and more speed through the turns. It was a fantastic 20-mile ride and I plan to go back to do the 40-mile at a later date, hopefully with some other folks who'd like to drive. Here is the raceway layout, and my "publicity photo." The video tape is a hoot, since you get all the audio effects. Can't wait to go again!
