Shadetree Enterprises, Inc.

As Published in the Winter, 2001 issue of RV Journal Magazine

       Text and Photos by Larry L. Cantrall

Driving Schools

Have you ever wanted to try taking a NASCAR Stock Car down the straight-away and drive into #1 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway? Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott made it look routine last spring and they were hitting 180 mph before entering the turn.

Or maybe you’d like to see and feel what Juan Montoya or Jimmy Vassar experience when they crest the hill at Laguna Seca before taking a hard left known as the “Corkscrew.” The “Corkscrew” has become one of the most famous corners in motorsports since Laguna opened over forty years ago.

Well its time to stop wondering. Driving Schools have been around for a long time, but they’ve been considered for racers only. Not anymore. Today, affordable courses of instruction are cropping up at tracks from Mesa Marin to Laguna Seca and Phoenix International Raceway. Men and women from all walks of life are improving their driving skills and living a dream on the racetrack.

From the Classroom

.....to Strapping in

The Richard Petty Driving Experience got its start in 1994 at Charlotte, North Carolina. Since then, Petty, aka “The King” of stock car racing, has added twenty-one more speedways to the program. One of the permanent locations is the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Richard Petty Driving Experiance

Petty’s Driving Experience offers six ways to get a feel for Stock car racing on a super speedway. You can do as little as strap yourself into a passenger seat and ride with one of the instructors on a three lap qualifying run. At Vegas, this means you’ll ride at speeds approaching 160 mph on the straight-away.

If just riding as a passenger isn’t your thing, then enroll in one of the driving experiences. You can sign-up for a three-hour class that includes eight laps in the driver’s seat. Or you can choose a course that includes up to a forty or eighty lap program that could involve some side by side 160 mph driving and a final round of one on one against your instructor.

Richard Petty: 888-237-3889

Considered by many as the “best racing and driving school in the world,” The Skip Barber Racing School bases one of its four regional operations at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. Since Skip Barber hung up his helmet and started teaching, his schools have grown and accumulated accolades that include his alumni winning every major American Racing Championship at least once.

Preparing for Hot Lapping

Racing programs are designed to provide the basic skills for racing cars as well as providing an experience of a lifetime. The popular course is the three-day program that includes both classroom and major driving time on the track performing various exercises designed to improve your ability to drive a racecar. Completion of this course allows a student to participate in other Skip Barber racing activities such as unrestricted driving on various courses they open for hot lapping with their cars or applying for a license in the Sports Car Club of America as a competitor.

Last Minute Instructions

Skip Barber schedules classes and racing activities during the year at five different road courses throughout the Southwest. The courses include Las Vegas Motor Speedway; Phoenix International; Sacramento’s Thunder Hill Park; Willow Springs Raceway near Los Angeles, and of course, Laguna Seca.

Several other racing schools are located at variousSouthwest tracks including many of the short tracks. If you decide to try one, make sure it offers what you want to get out of one of these courses. They involve more money than taking the family to Disneyland, but get the right one and you’ll never forget the experience.

Skip Barber: 800-221-1131.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

The mecca of motorsports in Nevada is right where it should be; Las Vegas. The city of lights, entertainment and action is also the home of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS). Located east of town between Las Vegas Boulevard and Interstate 15, the Speedway complex boasts over a dozen different racetracks for competition. If it has wheels, they probably race it at Las Vegas, including motorhomes.

The crown jewel is the 1-1/2 mile super speedway making it one of the largest speedways on the West Coast. The speedway is known as a wide racetrack that allows a lot of passing and exciting side by side racing action fans come to see. Racecars will reach speeds approaching 180 to over 200 mph on the front stretch for open wheel Indy Cars.

Outlaw Trouble at Las Vegas

Every March, LVMS hosts one of the major motorsports events of the new racing season. The NASCAR Winston Cup Cars Direct.com 400 and Busch series Sam’s Town 300 stock cars compete on the super speedway Saturday and Sunday with various on track activities on Thursday and Friday. The same weekend over on the dirt track, the winged sprint cars from the World of Outlaws hold three night races on Thursday, Friday and Saturday after completion of the daily NASCAR activities. Nevada’s largest sports weekend, it gets better with each year.

RVs at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

RVers, LVMS super speedway offers some excellent RV viewing areas from both the backstretch and infield. Any event here is a relatively new event that still makes it easy to get spots if you act early without having to get on a waiting list like more established Winston Cup events in, say, Phoenix.

Last year Cynthia Fleming reserved her trackside RV infield spot in November. Cynthia and her family are veteran RV motorsports fans. As well as Las Vegas, they’ve taken their coach to Phoenix; the California Speedway at Fontana; The Brickyard in Indianapolis and the Michigan Speedway. Cynthia says the biggest advantage is convenience and the kids. “It’s worth every penny,” and they’ll be back in Vegas for the 2001 NASCAR event. As this event and others at LVMS settle into their traditional dates, RV trackside and backstretch reservations will become increasingly harder to get.

RVs along the Backstretch: NASCAR Weekend
Las Vegas Motor Speedway

LVMS is a year round facility offering everything from NHRA Drags and Indy Car Racing to NASCAR Stock Cars and Go Karts. Hardly a weekend goes by where there isn’t some racing event scheduled on one or more of the various tracks located within the complex. For more information, tickets, or a schedule, contact LVMS at (800) 644-4444 or Nevada Tourism, Motorsports Division at (702) 486-2789.

New Season

Another new racing season is ready to start. Early events this year include the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge January 18-21. Held in RV friendly Laughlin, Nevada; this desert race is one of the more spectator friendly desert races on the SCORE schedule. Included in the festivities will be the pit crew competition and popular Laughlin Leap on Thursday night prior to the racing weekend.

    
Laughlin Desert Challenge Start Line

    
Pit Crew Competition                                                 Laughlin Desert Challenge

The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) begins it’s fifty-first season in February with the AutoZone Winter Nationals in Pomona, California and the Checker Schuck’s Kragen Nationals at Firebird International in Phoenix, Arizona two weeks later. These events are the first two of a season that eventually ends next November back in Pomona after twenty-four National Races across the nation. From Friday night qualifications to final races on Sunday, there’s plenty of ground pounding action.

John Epler's NHRA Funny Car Burnout

Region 12 of the American Power Boats gets the boat season off to an early start again this year at Havasu Landing. Held at the RV Resort and Casino on the California side of Lake Havasu, they will be racing all classes throughout the weekend. All though you’ll have to pay for your RV accommodations for the weekend, the price of admission to the races is a bargain, FREE!

         
American Power Boat Racing...Havasu Landing, California

Those of you expecting to go to the Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway in February will be in for a surprise. That event has been replaced with a NASCAR Stock Car Winter Heat weekend. The Classic has been moved to March and combined with the annual Indy Racing League event.

This year, the Indy cars open their season in Phoenix at Copper World. Besides the Indy Cars, racing will also include the USAC Silver Bullet Series, USAC Midget and Supermodifieds making the Copper World Classic a true open wheel spectacular.

Start your RV engines and head out for another racing season...

Winter Events

January18-21 • Laughlin
Desert Challenge
SCORE Desert Race
Laughlin, NV • (800) 227-5245

January 20-21 • Power Boat Races
Lake Havasu Landing
Lake Havasu, CA • (800) 307-3610

February 1-4 • NHRA Winter Nationals
Pomona Raceway
Pomona, CA • (909) 593-7010

February 2-4 • NASCAR Winter Heat
Phoenix International Raceway
Phoenix, AZ • (602) 252-2227

February 15-18 • NHRA Nationals
Firebird International Raceway
Phoenix, AZ • (602) 268-0200

March 1-4 • NASCAR Weekend
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, NV • (800) 644-4444

March 1-3 • World of Outlaws
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, NV • (800) 644-4444

March 15-18 • NASCAR
Craftsman Trucks
Mesa Marin, Bakersfield, CA
(661) 366-5711

March 16-18 • Copper World Classic
Phoenix International Raceway
Phoenix, AZ • (602) 252-2227

Copyright: Shadetree Enterprises, Inc and Bidena Publishing

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