Racing in Irwindale

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

For my birthday a few months back, AK got me a Super Ride at Performance Race Training Center at Irwindale Speedway. At this particular race training center, a Super Ride is a ride-along in a not-as-fast NASCAR-style stockcar, for about 5 laps.

The Super Ride was finally put to use this past Saturday, and man, it was quite the experience. As a huge NASCAR fan, and a racing fan in general, I’ve always wanted to know what it felt like to be in a race car. And I was not disappointed. I was a bit wary at first while watching other drivers go around the race track. They seemed slow, and if this was how my ride was going to be, it would not be very pleasing. But silly me, I didn’t realize until after my ride was over that because they were student drivers, and most likely first time drivers, they would be taking it slow.

From the moment we pulled onto the track, I felt like holding on for dear life. Thankfully, I was strapped in tightly. The half-lap of warm-ups, constant acceleration and deceleration and turning, and the pseudo-short-track racing experience were all insane. It really gives you an understanding and respect for what professional race car drivers go through on the track, and the top physical condition they have to be in to do what they do in these cars. Its loud, its cramped, its hot, and the g-forces pushing against your body are tremendous.

I’ve heard many people mock auto-racing, saying it shouldn’t qualify as a sport, how lame it is, etc. I say unless you know what these dudes go through, you have no idea what its like. I turned to look at my driver a couple of times during the ride, and I could see the focus and concentration on his face, not to mention the beads of sweat rolling down.

I asked how fast we’d gone during the ride and was told about 95. I’m sure you all routinely do 95 on freeways, but in a race car its a different story. It is FAST.

The experience was short, but awesome, and I had a huge smile on my face the whole time. I’m glad AK gave me a chance to experience it. Next time I will get the racing package and actually drive one of these cars.

Some photos:

Before getting into the cars, all participants were given a chance to take photos. This is the #46 car. This car was not the ride-along car, but I didn’t know that when taking the photo. The fact that it only had a driver’s seat should have alerted me to that fact.

After taking the previous photo, AK pointed out that my pants had fallen down. I knew they were big, but I didn’t think they would fall down. Luckily, I had my other pants on underneath.

This is probably around lap 3. If you look closely, you can see me in my helmet, trying to pose for the camera. I saw AK taking photos and did my best to look in her direction.

I was still in recovery mode after the ride. You can’t see the sweat stains in this photo, but I assure you they were there.