Fast car, racing heart
Herald’s Alexi Iafrato satisfies her need for speed – and then some – in NASCAR test drive
LOUDON, N.H. — I pulled up to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the media racing challenge convinced that my native Massachusetts driving skills would help me smoke the competition.
It goes without saying that we’re known for having an inherent need for speed — but I quickly learned that dodging slowpokes on Interstate 95 going 75 mph is not even close to pushing 125 mph around a racetrack.
The event started out with a safety crash course to bring all of us amateurs up to speed on all things NASCAR.
Mark Ebert, a pro from the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience, sped through the safety session (pun intended), leaving my mind racing in circles.
“You’re perfectly normal if you go around the corner and you think, ‘We’re all going to die,’ ” Ebert assured us.
After a lot of technical talk (and me praying that a ‘Racing for Dummies’ book would fall into my lap), we put on our racing gear (aka sauna suit) and made our way to the track.
Let’s start with the “car” — if you want to call it that. There’s nothing familiar about it whatsoever.
There’s no AC, no radio, no cup holders for your Starbucks or Dunks. The list goes on.
The minute you climb through the glassless window, you’re met by the overwhelming and nauseating smell of burnt rubber and fuel before a crew member straps you into the seat with a four-point belt — like the ones you wear when you’re about to get whipped around by a Six Flags mega coaster. Then it was go time. The first time around the track everyone rides shotgun with a pro at the helm to get a feel for things.
Once we hit 100 mph, my field of vision started to fade away. By 125 mph, it completely vanished.
The thrill of screaming down the speedway (as the passenger) was electric, but that completely changed when I hit the hot seat, alone.
The crew put two radio headsets in my helmet so I could hear my spotter, who was quite literally the eyes in the back of my head, since the car had no rearview mirrors.
Everything you know about driving goes straight out the window in a race car.
The max speed limit in Massachusetts is 65 mph, so think about more than doubling that speed in a rotary, where the average speed limit is 20 mph. That’s what driving around this track was like.
You have to speed up and jam through turns, even though it goes against all your natural instincts to slow down on a curve.
But as our instructor said, these cars are designed to safely withstand that speed. And the track infrastructure is top-notch. It’s not like you’re hitting potholes and dodging animals darting across the road. But still, even knowing all of that my heart was still racing faster than the car was.
All I can say is thank God there were only three or four cars on the track at a time. I can’t even imagine 39 other cars cruising on top of you, trying to knock you out.
My hands were superglued at 10 and 2, even though I was practically crawling on the track. Once that race car started cruising, all I cared about was steering clear of the concrete wall.
Once I completed my six laps, I pulled back onto pit road and went straight to the pit crew challenge. Each of us amateurs had to change a tire, pit style, while a crew member timed us. Keep in mind a professional NASCAR pit crew can change all four tires and get the car back on the track in an average of 12 seconds.
I changed one tire in 58 seconds.
So I don’t think I’ll be getting a call from NASCAR anytime soon. But hey, I made it out alive!