richard petty driving experience

I bought 4 laps for my Husband for his birthday. He Loved it! The experience was one he will never forget. The only downside was the price. Way overpriced, but fun.

There is no way to describe this experience other than to try it yourself. You will head into a 30 degrees sloped wall at 165 MPH. What a rush, especially when you see the skid marks in turn three where drivers before you have hit the wall. There is about an hour meeting with the crew cheif. The crew cheif will give you driving instructions on what driving line to take on the track. Pretty much stay between line 2 and 3 all the around the track. Go high down straight away, go low around the curves. I did not let up on the accelator the whole time I was driving. One piece of advice, do not let anyone drive this course unless the are experience driver on the road.

The driver will be so jazzed he or she will not be able to count laps, but the person travelling with them should. My boyfriend drove and I counted and took photos on my digital camera. I only counted 7 laps, but we paid for 8. At $550 for 8 laps, that's about $70 per lap. When they gave him his lap sheet, it only had 6 lap times on it. They tried to tell us that was because his first and last lap weren't timed. I even had proof on my high end digital camera (with onboard clock..to the hundredth of a sec.) that the photos were taken about 1 minute apart from leaving the pit to returning to the pit and those photos proved he only got 7 laps. The lead guy at the track blew me off and told me we got 8 laps regardless of what my camera said. They even reprinted my boyfriend's lap sheet with the lap times to prove their point, and the times on the second sheet were not the same as the first one they gave him. We began to think they are just making that stuff up for show. Especially since the two other people's sheets we looked at had 154mph as their high speed, the same as his. And a friend that did this several months ago had 154 as his speed as well. My boyfriend wanted to go faster and they wouldn't let him. Once you add the $200 it took to go the 5 hours to Talladega, plus the extra $300 you spend after you get there for the ride- along they totally push and the photos and DVD, etc., you will be out $1,000 bucks!! To short change you a lap is just sad. He had a blast, but we were disappointed with their lack of customer service. There was no training and they basically seemed to be trying to get everyone in and out of there so they could be done for the day.If you have money to burn, go for it. But count your laps!!