Today I had arranged to do the Richard Petty Driving Experience for DBF's 21st Birthday. He would be Turning 21 on Tuesday Dec 11th so I had decided to book the Rookie Experience for him. He was looking forward to today & he was very excited.
We had to be at the Walt Disney World Speedway at 7.30am so we arranged the wake up call for 6.00am & we got in a taxi at 7.00am. The Taxi driver was really nice & he seemed really excited for DBF & he loved that we were from Australia he said he had never met anyone from Australia before. He was such a nice guy. We arrived at the speedway just before 7.30.
Here is DBF at the Entrance:
The Richard Petty Van turned up & we all rode to the main building & we all signed in. Once everyone was signed in we had to go in the classroom & we watched a 10min video & they gave the drivers a few instructions & gave them there racing Suits.
Here is DBF in his suit:
They split the drivers into 2 groups & everyone went outside to the stands. If you weren't driving & you were just there with someone you then went out to the stands and got to watch the training.
Here is DBF During his Training.
While DBF was doing his training, I was just watching in the stands and someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around & the Taxi driver we had this morning was there. He said he found our Video Camera Battery in his car & had driven all the way back to give it to us. That was soo nice of him, we didn't even know we had lost it. I gave him a $20 tip for his troubles.
After they had about half an hour training they went for a ride around the track in the Richard Petty van. All the people who were there to watch also got to go around the track in the Van which was really fun.
After the Van ride they all had there photo's taken with the Richard Petty car & then were told they had 15mins to grab a drink & go to the bathroom & then they would start.
After the 15mins they told everyone the Track was not dry properley & we would have to wait for it to dry before they could start the driving. After 45mins it was finally time for everyone to drive. DBF was the 4th person to drive & he was soo nervous he said he was really scared because you drive by yourself with no one else in the car with you & he had to sit on the opposite side of the car to Australia & he was afraid about the gears being on the other side of him.
Here he is ready to drive:
He was assigned the number 19 Dodge & off he went for his 8 laps.
He absolutley loved it, he wanted to get straight back in the car and go again.
There was about 20 people in his group & because he was the 4th we had to wait for all the other people to drive before he could get his photo's and lap times.
It took about 2 hours for everyone to drive but finally we were all done & they went back into the classroom to give out the certificates & lap times. DBF's Fastest time was 46.48 & his top speed was 112mph.
This was supposed to finish at 11.00am, but because of the delay with the track being wet & the large number of people in his group it was about 1.00pm.
The Richard Petty vans drove everyone back to The TTC & from there we caught the ferry to magic Kingdom
Here are a few pics I took on the ferry:
We caught the bus from MK back to POP & had a late lunch at everything Pop. We then headed back to the room so we could have a afternoon nap before
MVMCP.
Next up: Our night at MVMCP
