In January, annual passholders at Walt Disney World received word via newsletter that they could receive a free ride-along at the Richard Petty Speedway located just outside the Magic Kingdom's parking lot. I'm very far from a racing fan and watch none of the races (I'm sort of vaguely aware that Danica Patrick just made the jump from Indy to Nascar, but that's about it). And yet the news of this freebie really touched a nerve—I was ready to climb into the car immediately. "Start your engines!" I thought involuntarily.
I was a lot less willing to experience this when I had to pay $109 for the ride along (or $449 to drive my own car). The FTC mandates that we bloggers are explicit here, so let me explicitly state that I didn't pay for this foray—it was strictly the free benefit provided to all annual passholders, until the end of March.
Entry to the speedway requires signing in at the gate first.
The speedway sits on the outskirts of the TTC parking lot. We hear cars zooming around in there sometimes from the TTC, but not every time, which has in the past implied to me that they aren't as busy as they want to be (which would put into context why they might offer this annual passholder benefit, to hook people on doing it).
You access the speedway by car, passing through a one-lane tunnel under the track. If you're staying at the Disney hotels, grab a free shuttle to the speedway from the TTC's pet kennel. Visitors and spectators, by the way, are welcome—no requirement to purchase a ride!
The infrastructure here is pretty basic. There's a solitary temporary-looking building, looking more like an industrial "portable" than anything you'd associate with Disney architecture. Inside is a shop and a sales counter; start here to announce your intention to do the free ride-along and you'll be asked to show ID and your annual pass. Then it's as simple as donning the jumpsuit and going outside to wait in line. If you were to do the "drive your own" experience instead, there's a significant training to sit through first.
Not the usual Disney look.
You suit up with a helmet next to the track. When we visited on a Saturday early in the afternoon, it varied between 1-4 people in front of us over the course of an hour. A single race car was dedicated to the free ride alongs; all other cars were in use for the self-drivers (who had their own grandstand enclosure). The ride along lasts for three laps, and since the cars are moving fast (duh), it's over in a few minutes, so you can imagine that the wait is not oppressive.
When it's your turn, they make you remove all free objects, including cameras (which are forbidden in the car). It crossed my mind that I could have easily hidden my handheld camera up my sleeve until I was inside the car, but why in the world would I endanger the driver's life by risking distracting him? This is not the time to be messing around.
Grab a suit and head outside!
You have to climb in via the window, so there's a physical size component here. I'd guesstimate that you'd start having trouble at 240 pounds (if you were six feet tall and not made of muscle), and probably fewer pounds if you were shorter. After the experience, you have to poke out your head and then pull yourself out, which is stomach-muscle intensive.
They strap you in with this completely incomprehensible (seven-point?) harness; just sit back and let them do it. I enjoyed the flash of reality when they showed me, in case of emergency, the red strap to release the seatbelt and the red pipe for releasing the window netting for escape.
Gulp.
Lots of gauges. My driver Brett said he only looks at them occasionally.
And they're off! We jetted out of the pit area fast… but then stopped to let the self-drivers and their pace car go first. Rumor has it that the pro drivers like I was with can and do go faster than the self-drivers, but since I ended up as part of the self-driver "train," I'm not sure I got to experience the full speed. Beggars can't be choosers.
The full speed is said to be up to 120 MPH on this track. The cars can do more, but the track is just too small, and not straight enough, to get the cars up higher. That brings us to the ride itself: it's a lot of acceleration and deceleration… not a consistent fast speed at all. In some ways, it reminded me of Test Track (and what Disneyland's Rocket Rods wanted to be). The path followed the familiar "sometimes inside, sometimes outside" of the track that you can see on any race on TV, meaning that you occasionally come right up next to the wall going 100+ miles per hour.
You’re going so fast, you won’t notice the flags waving.
That brought a smile to my face. In fact, I'm pretty sure I smiled through the whole thing. It was a fairly unique and fun experience, no question about it. What I do question is whether it would be worth the normal $100 cost. Is it worthwhile to pay $100 for six minutes of fun? That very much depends on how much money you make/have, how accustomed you are to parting with that much (I've lost $100 on a single blackjack bet before), and how important this unique experience is to you. Race fans will probably find nothing to complain about. I can't speak to how worthwhile the drive-yourself option is. It's probably more fun and exhilarating, but it's also dramatically more expensive (it's presently $449, to be precise).
They take a video of you in-cabin and try to sell you the DVD. They also take a photo of you in the car just before you take off, and try to sell you that photo ($17) or a plaque of that photo ($35). We ended up buying nothing, meaning we came, we saw, we left spending no money.
Especially for free, it was amazing.
People like us are probably pretty common, because the sales clerk volunteered, without any reporter-like prompting from me, that the free promotion was a horrible idea. It originated from the Charlotte headquarters of the company, not Disney's side, and it was generating way, way more than double the usual business, but very little additional sales. The clerk said it was clear they were losing money on this promotion, and they wouldn't be doing it again.
That adds urgency to the need to try this out for yourself if you've got an annual pass and will be visiting before the end of March. Personally, I wouldn't pay $100 to do this again. But I was extremely grateful to be able to do it once for free.
Magic Pursuit – Mark the Date for April 10
As announced previously, I'm hosting a free "scavenger/puzzle" race at Epcot on April 10. Teams of 2-4 are preferred, but individuals can also play solo. Advance registration by email ([email protected]) is required. Visit www.magicpursuit.com for more info and samples of previous games for download. |
