Former President Bush celebrated his 80th birthday by jumping out of an airplane.
Wimp.
Gerry Flunker of Sebring marked 85 Saturday by tearing around the speedway at nearly 100 mph.
Go granny go, indeed.
"Oh, that was great," a breathless Flunker said after her eight laps in a souped-up Chevy at the Richard Petty Driving Experience. "I want to go again. That is so cool. My heart is going pitty-pat."
Decked out in a red, white-and-blue jumpsuit and her bifocals, she hit 97.26 mph on her final lap.
Zippy.
But it was only 2 mph faster than her speed on a Missouri highway this summer, when her cruise control was broken and she sped along for a while without paying attention.
"I slowed right down. I have no business going 95 out there on the highway," she said, making sure to point out she's never gotten a speeding ticket.
Flunker has always loved driving, even if the last stick-shift she drove -- 30 years ago -- before her stock car-experience had only three forward gears.
She got the need for speed two years ago, when she went with a son-in-law as he drove at another of the 25 Richard Petty tracks.
She rode shotgun with a professional driver that time and kept giving the driver a thumbs-up signal to go faster. When it was over, she knew she wanted to handle the driving herself.
The idea of a racing granny -- actually, she's a great-great-grandmother, with 19 grandkids, 27 great-grandkids and four great-great-grandkids -- didn't surprise her family.
This is a woman who revs up her 1995 Crown Victoria every year before Mother's Day and logs about 4,000 miles by Labor Day, driving around the country to visit family.
So, nine of her kids, grandkids and their families drove from all over Florida on Saturday to cheer on her dream. Daughter Margie Parr even brought the family dog, Molly, to the show.
"She's in control and she loves it," said John Parr, another son-in-law, who also raced Saturday to celebrate his 47th birthday last week. "It's her own world."
The world includes playing the organ, taking a 3-mile walk every morning and calling bingo numbers at her retirement community.
Now, it includes being the oldest driver so far this year at any of the Richard Petty tracks, said Chris McKee, the company's marketing director.
"Maybe when she got her license, she dreamed of speed but got sensible in the middle part of her life," McKee said. "Now it's come full circle."
Ten circles, actually -- one for each lap around the speedway to warm up, race and slow down. Guiding a 600-horsepower engine didn't faze her.
The hardest part, she said, was getting her 85-year-old bones in and out of the 15-inch-by-30-inch-wide window that sits 3 feet off the ground. Stock-car doors are welded shut.
Given that hurdle crossed, next year's goal should be no problem.
"Next year, I'd like to drive an 18-wheeler, I really would," Flunker said. "My daughter said unless it was automatic transmission I wouldn't have the strength to push the clutch in, but I don't see why not."
My boss did one of the driving programs and he is tall .. like 6' something and he was able to fit in ( I dont know if they had to help him though 
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