California Speedway  − 1 November, 2001

For Mother's day of this year, my mother actually got me a gift.  14 laps in a NASCAR at the California Speedway.  The company that put it on was DriveTech.

I had to spend about an hour in a class going over the saftey equipment and what we needed to be aware of while on the track.  When we got down to the track, I was assigned a car.  It was the white number 11 car.  I was so excited.

I crawled in through the window and strapped myself in.  The stearing wheel had to be removed so that I could fit into the seat, so the assistant snapped it back on once I was buckled in.  The stearing wheel was ucomfortabley close to my body.  I my elbows where litterally at my sides.

They instructed us to start our engines.  The cars in the line all started and the roar was so loud I couldn't hear anything else.  As we started around the track, the line of 15 cars followed the pace car.  We took two laps around the track at about 70MPH.  We all had a small earpiece where the track coordinator would talk to us.  Telling us if we where too close to another car, or if we needed to pass someone.  Right as the pace car pulled into the pits, he told us to hit the gas.  I was in the west turn when I floored it.  The car took off.

It was an undescribable feeling to hit the straight away at 150MPH.  The wall was inches from the side of the car.  Of course they had a engine switch that kept us from going any faster so that we wouldn't kill ourselves.  It was a blast anyway.