How I Became A Nascar Driver... For A Day!

It all started just like any other day... It was late summer/early fall in sunny Arizona when I was on my way to my parents house with my new family. 

My mom was there and had set up a surprise early Christmas gift for myself and brother. I had no idea what this surprise could be and neither did my brother. 

When I got to the house they were already waiting in the car ready to go. My family and I climbed in (it is a big suburban so we all fit in one vehicle). As we climbed in we were greeted with a warm "hurry up, we are going to be late!" I still had no idea where we were going or what we were doing. Any question that we asked my mom wanting a hint as to what our surprise was, she rebuffed with a simple "you'll just have to wait and see".

We drove for what seemed like an eternity, it was really about an hour, but if you have ever been couped up in a vehicle that is meant to hold 8 comfortably with 9 people (1 of them being a baby)... you will know what I mean. 

As we started to get closer I could see a large building in the distance... it looked something like a stadium... "We are here my mom proudly exclaimed!". I was still not sure exactly what was going on at this point... but my mom said since we are here she could finally tell us what our surprise was... It was 15 laps driving my very own Nascar race car. I was in shock... I have always loved driving fast cars... as you may have noticed in my picture posted with my old mustang, but I never dreamed of actually driving a race car! 

I didn't even know you could drive a real Nascar car, let alone that my mom would set it up for us! 

After the shock wore off we had to go register and take a class before we were allowed near a car. This is where my excitement turned to fear in no time flat...

You see, apparently there were some young punks in the class with us that the instructor had overheard talking about how they were going to crash the cars and really mess up the track. The instructor decided she was going to scare the heck out of them to try and make sure they drove cautiously out on the track... in doing so, she scared the heck out of my brother and I! To the point my girlfriend and parents no longer wanted me to go on the track at all! 

After the class was over the instructor must have been able to tell we were scared as well because she pulled us off to the side and told us what she just did and why she did it. She tried to calm our nerves and reassure us that she was only saying all those things to scare those kids... not us. It somewhat worked but we were still a little nervous... 

Next we had to go get fitted for our fire suits. Yes this was the real thing and we had to be safe! After we got in our fire suits we were escorted to our race cars... but before got in... we had to strike a pose for the camera (just in case we really did die out there).

As I sat in the car the nervousness was really starting to set in. Although, I wasn't nearly as nervous as my brother I am sure... he didn't even know how to drive a stick shift! As I sat at the starting line waiting for them to tell me it was my turn to go, I couldn't help but have a new respect for Nascar drivers as I could barely see out of that little windshield with my helmet on and all the gadgets in the way. You can't move your neck at all and you really can't move much of anything in those cars. There are no side mirrors, which may be obvious to some, but it was news to me. There is a guy in the watch tower with binoculars that tells you over radio when cars are coming up on you... so if you want to "change lanes" while you are out on the track you have to rely solely on him telling you what is around you. 

Once I got out there on the track it was pretty exciting. The second you push down on the gas the car takes off... it is very responsive. I was pretty cautious at first taking a couple laps slowly until I really got the hang of it.... The biggest hurdle was trying to see... there was a glare at almost all times which made it scary as you were coming up to a turn, not able to see how far away you are from a wall can be pretty frightening. After a couple laps though, I gained some confidence and started to pick up the pace a little on my remaining laps. There was no speedometer in the car so it was impossible for me to know how fast I was going but it felt pretty fast. 

(unfortunately I don't have a scanner at the moment or a way to rotate this picture, so it comes out a little sideways, but this is the car I drove)

After the 15 laps around the track was over.... I was glad to get out and be able to stretch. Like I mentioned previously there is no room in those things to move around or anything. I have a new respect for Nascar drivers how cramped they are in there and how hard it is to see when you are out there on the track. My girlfriend ran over to me and gave me a huge hug, thankful that I was alive! She was still worried after hearing about all the potential things that could go wrong out there from the class before... that and me having to sign an accidental death waver before I went out on the track kinda rubbed her the wrong way. All in all though it was a great time and a great Christmas present from my mom. 

The biggest challenge was when I went back out on the regular roads trying not to drive like a race car driver! I have a new respect for the professionals in that regard as well! :)

Live well my friends!

This has been an original story from @jrcornel

All the images are my own.