Richard Petty Driving Experience

[cowtownmom]

I just booked DH for the RPDE! I'm going to surprise him with this and give him the papers on Father's Day. He's booked for the next day. I can't wait to see his reaction! He has said he'd love to do this, but would never book it for himself.

 

[aubriee]

I just booked DH for the RPDE! I'm going to surprise him with this and give him the papers on Father's Day. He's booked for the next day. I can't wait to see his reaction! He has said he'd love to do this, but would never book it for himself.

I booked the Rookie Experience for my son for the last full day of our January trip. Please don't make that same mistake. If you book it for the early part of your trip you should be fine. If it rains it will be cancelled and you will not get your money back. We were lucky in that there is a RPDE at the Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas and we got a rain check to do it here. Others were not so lucky, did not have a RPDE near them, and just lost their money.

The RPDE is only at Texas Motor Speedway for two weeks in April and one week in July. My son went this past Sunday, did it in Dallas and loved it. My younger son went with us to watch, but when we got there I could tell he was excited so asked if he could do it also. Because they had an uneven number and were going to divide the participants into teams, they allowed me to go ahead and book his on the spot. You never saw a 27 y/o and 23 y/o so competative. They were placed on different teams and were competing not just against the other teams, but against each other. My elder son beat my younger son's top speed by two miles/hour, but my younger son beat my elder son five out of the six laps that counted. The first and last laps were not timed. Both declared themselves the winner and are still arguing (good naturedly) about it almost a week later.

At WDW you get a discount if you have an AP or AAA. Be sure to buy the large plaque afterwards. It's about $75.00, but has 5x7 of the driver in the car and a 5x7 of him beside the Richard Petty car and is set on black marble. My boys love theirs. Also bring your camera, as you can get some great pictures. Afterwards they let people out onto the track to take pictures with the different cars and even helped put the little kids in the cars so parents could get pictures. I suppose they would do the same at WDW.

 

[cowtownmom]

We will have two more days after the day he is booked for in case of rain. And, we live only 20 minutes away from Texas Motor Speedway, so that if he has to do it there, it will be easy to do.

Thanks for your input on his experience there!

 

[nybound]

We have a similar thread over here.

I did the Experience of a Lifetime earlier this month and had a blast.

In terms of discounts, AAA members get a 20% discount.