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Getting
Blown Away at 160MPH WAVE917 11/16/98 For the second year in a row STB has sponsored an event for industry analysts prior to COMDEX where they can have the Richard Petty Driving Experience. This year NVIDIA was a co-sponsor. This is all about driving a real Winston cup stock car on a real race course. As an entertainment experience we have never experienced anything like this. In comparison, it makes a VR driving experience on a motion platform, even using multiple screens, about the level of a 5 year old's bicycle with training wheels. Well, upon second thought, we probably over stated the relative quality of the VR experience. This is a real as it gets. I took both the Riding Experience and the Rookie Experience. The former is 3 laps around the track as a passenger with speeds up to 160mph. The latter is 2 X 4 lap runs where you are the driver and sole person in the car with speeds up to 140mph. The track was excellent - the Las Vegas speedway which is a 1.5 mile circuit with 12 degree banks. I was in a group which began at 5pm and completed about 8pm, thus, our runs were at night on a beautifully lit race course. Taking the Riding Experience first was very valuable. I gained a sense for the car and how it handled on the course. The driver was particularly aggressive as he moved in and out of the designated path for the rookies. My greatest concern was coming into the turns at high speed and losing the rear end in a slide. However, the professional driver was able to run at higher speeds and the rear end was solid. A few times it appeared that the rear end would skip on the track at high G's but the driver told me that traction was never lost. I was strapped into a tight bucket seat which provides little comfort but much support on both sides. Using a standard racing 5 point seat harness, neck strap, helmut and the lateral support of the seat one is tightly confined. The roll cage surrounds the inside of the cockpit which is functional but very sparse. There should be no association with this racing car and a conventional car both internal and external. One's physical response to the Riding Experience is difficult to describe. When the engine is started it is clear that 650 hp is only a foot away from the fire wall. Chest thumping low frequency audio and the power of the engine is the best descriptive combination to use. Moving out from the pits we began slowly but as the pit lane approached the track it was pedal to the metal. As the car accelerated, and I was thrust back into my seat, there was no doubt that even the ride was going to be a unique experience. The track has been marked by the Richard Petty Driving Experience with two narrow white paint strips approximately 1 foot long and separated about 20 feet. This occurs about every 200 feet along the track. As the instructors stated in the pre-briefing, the car pretty much drives itself as long as one stays in the grove between these markings. The professional driver for the Riding Experience followed the grove - approximately. He, however, would run closer to the wall and at these speeds anything adjacent to the right window was just a blur. One of the most striking aspects of the ride were the lateral G forces. The driver would come in high at the entrance to a curve and pull low into the curve. This seemed to make the forces even greater. However, this was the natural course of the track which the car followed. There is a tendency to back off in the curves but this loses valuable speed. With the professional driver one would go from the short straight sections to the G forces in the corners with no backing off. The essence of this experience is immersion. None of this "suspension-of-disbelief" garbage. At no time did I experience fear but it was the assault on multiple sensual modalities that created the incredible experience. The combination of G forces, the unknown, the speed and noise level all created a very unusual set of simuli unique to racing. The advantage of the Riding Experience is that it lowered the number of unknown factors by watching the professional. Next was the driving experience. It is best to step back and describe the sequence of the experience because the drivers are exposed to much more than the rider experience described above. There were 13 in our class, the last of the day. After suit-up in a driving jump suit the drivers are given a pre-show in video. This explained the experience but did not go into the details of the training. The next was a verbal overview of what we were to do while driving and some ground rules for the pits and adjacent areas. A key to the driving experience is the role of the instructor. Every driver is paired with an instructor which runs ahead of the driver's car. As a driver you are to, above all else, follow the lead of the instructor. A series of hand signals are laid out to set your distance from the instructor and to provide instructions during the run. At the center of the track is the nest tower just above the track and adjacent to the stands. During a real race this is where the flags are waved to the drivers. The same applies in the Richard Petty Driving Experience. However, you can also be given signs which tells one to pull up closer behind the instructors or open up a greater distance. The following are key guidelines:
The valuable information came when we loaded into a van and another instructor drove the race track. He pointed out the watch points, the grove, the signal nest, and how to conduct our interaction with the instructors in front us during the drive. At times I found some of the instruction redundant but I would much rather have heard it more than once than to have missed it. From here we went with our assigned groups for driving. In advance of the driving those running the experience had a print out of the drivers and their driving sequence. Drivers were paired with certain cars because the distance from the seat to the pedals is fixed. Thus, it is important to find the proper fit between a given car and those who can drive it. All of this was worked out in advance before the driving begins. The Rookie Experience is broken into two runs of 4 laps each. This is important because the first run is familiarization. One could run at the top speed for this level, that is 140 mph, but those who had not driven before, were typically more conservative. After the 4th lap of the first run one started to become familiar with the driving patterns and how to improve one's skill, including getting the speed up. At the end of the run a race coordinator would speak with the instructor. I got some valuable information, which, in part confirmed what I sensed on the track. After all had run the course the first time we were coached on improvements and technique. Then the second run began. During a run there were typically 6+ cars on the track. Given the pacing by the instructors one typically did not overtake other drivers, however, some would be going quite slow and overtaking them was a possibility. More importantly, the Riding Experience was on-going at much higher speeds. I was driving the first set of laps and the instructor went low on the main stretch, whom I followed. The next thing I watched the professional driver zoom past me to the right like a bullit. What a feeling. The driving experience began when one's time came up and the car of the previous driver came into the pits. Even before the current driver got out of the car I was instructed to stand behind the left rear tire. When he got out I moved in. Since the car has no doors, one has to angle in one leg at a time and then the head makes it in. With the helmut this was a little cumbersome but at this point such an inconvenience is immaterial to the building excitement. After being strapped in the crew member attaches the steering wheel. Once the car is ready to engage with the instructor the crew member starts the engine. There is no turning back at this point. The linkage with the instructor is accomplished under the direction of one of the crew members directing traffic in the pit. The instructors bring each car into the pits but they stay on the right side while the drivers park as directed in multiple rows to the left. The instructor stays only a short time and is ready to move out again and following immediately behind is the next driver. Thus, there is a continuous coordinated flow of drivers linking up with instructors. This speeds the process and keeps the track full. There is no other way to describe the experience than intense. We were told by one crew member that only one driver had hit a wall in the last year, apparently with no injuries. We were also told multiple times how fixed the path along the course was for the cars given how they were set up by the mechanics. Thus, by all measures it was very safe. None of this meant anything as the car accelerated out of the pits. It took nearly 1/2 the track to get up to speed and enter the race track. There were stories of how earlier in the day some drivers were going slower on the race track that the speeds they drove to the race track. This was certainly not my intent. The level of concentration was just one factor in the intensity. I had to keep my eyes on the grove, the instructor and the nest when it appeared. However, the real challenge was to continually look ahead and anticipate the track and next actions. All of this was taking place as I entered a turn high and pulled quickly low with the G forces pulling me and the car to the outside of the track. The continual tendency was to slow down but this only put one farther behind the instructor. If you got too far behind the nest would signal to narrow the gap - a signal I did not get. One could not escape the reality of what was happening. With one small mistake it was possible to end up against the wall. There was an element of fear of making a mistake but at the same time there was the continual challenge of attempting to do well. Although none of the timing data was available until the end of the race, I was continually sensitive to being competitive. As a form of entertainment, in spite of riding many rides, including the dragster in Atlanta which was reported on in WAVE, there is nothing like this. You are in complete control and the ultimate end result is yours. Yet, the range of end results can vary widely including a mistake that causes a crash. At the same time skill plays a significant role and this was obvious from the first run to the second. I had the greatest trepidation about coming in high at the beginning of the curves and rapidly heading low. As I came out of the stretch the last inclination was to pull to the wall yet this is what the grove and instructor called for. As the speed increased with the later laps I continually felt like the rear would crawl out from under me at the apex of the curve. Of course, this was not to happen at these speeds but there was still the feeling. It was instructive to watch the other drivers and how they improved from the first run to the second. The gaps between them and the instructor narrowed and it was easy to see how the speeds were going up. On my second run I felt much more at ease. The focus was very much on keeping a fixed distance with the instructor and I did much better. In fact, I missed the checkered flag which signified that this was the last lap and I was to head into the pits on the back stretch. I was going so fast that the instructor signaled me to slow down as we entered the last portion of the track. In spite of it being the end of the driving experience and getting out of the car, dropping down to reality took about an hour. As I drove back from the race course to Las Vegas this was also driving but the two experiences were in no way coupled. My mind was still on the track and experience. When all the drivers were done we assembled for the final packages to be passed out. This included a diploma and our race times. An incredible experience not to be forgotten. There are 3 bases from which the Richard Petty Experiences are staged: Harrisburg, NC the headquarters, Las Vegas and Orlando. A new one will open in Atlanta in February 1999. Each site has its own crews and these can be deployed to other race tracks in the area to stage the racing experience. The Harrisburg site does the most traveling and this has included Daytona, Texas and Indianapolis. Las Vegas has gone to Pikes Peak in June and July for 3 weeks. The movement takes a large convoy which includes 12 cars on 2 transport trucks, a number of vans for support, spares, tires and personnel. The preparation time is 1 week. In Las Vegas they typically run 18 days/month and at times have handled up to 1,100 rookies in 10 days. There are 9 full time employees in Las Vegas and typically 30 part time on school days. The Richard Petty Driving Experience pays the race course for using the track and the track provides safety and ambulance services when it is being used. Typically the experience must request the number of days it wants to use the track 1 year in advance, however, we had the impression that the actual days used are flexible. The busiest days are Friday, Saturday, Sunday and sometimes also Monday. The majority of the riders are individuals, however, there has been a recent increase in the number of corporate events. The demographics of who raced on the STB/NVIDIA day was skewed by the fact that these were analysts. In this crowd the range was from 40 - 55. It was estimated ,by a crew member, that typically 90% of the drivers are male. The cars are virtually identical to Winston Cup race cars. The suspension, transmission and rear ends are the same. However, the bodies are fiberglass compared to steel in the actual race cars. This is done for maintenance purposes. These cars have two seats where the race cars have only one. An experience car has from 600 - 650 hp while an actual race car has 700 - 750 hp. The maximum rpms of the experience cars is limited to 7000. An engine replacement costs $30,000 and one went out the day we were at the track. Each car has a lap counting mechanism that is used to signal maintenance intervals. Here is the maintenance schedule: 300 miles - Car checkThere are four experience levels: Riding Experience - with Professional Driver $105.99 This event was run buy those who love racing. The preparation was professional but not staged. Everyone was very approachable. (800)BE-PETTY |
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