Driving school uses Pocono to reach biggest crowd (NASCAR.com)
July 31, 2009
Driving at Pocono Raceway can't really be all that hard, can it? Three turns, a couple of very long straightaways and a short chute, and you're done. Piece of cake.
Until you've strapped into a race car at the 2.5-mile, triangular-shaped race track, there's really no way to adequately describe what it takes to get around the place. And that's precisely where Stock Car Racing Experience comes in. Pocono is the only track at which the 11-year-old company offers its driving experience, so its instructors know the place pretty well.
And it's a beast, make no mistake about it.
"It's a cross between road course and oval," says Steve Fox, the general manager and chief instructor. "With three different straightaways being different lengths and three corners, you can never quite get the car set up quite right in all three corners."
The school was founded in 1998 by Jesse Roverana and Ove Falck. Since then, Stock Car Racing Experience cars have logged a stunning 1.6 million miles at Pocono. Currently, the operation features 17 cars built specifically for the experience; they're not hand-me-downs like you might find at other driving schools.
On track about 50 days a year, Stock Car Racing Experience has any number of offerings available. To drive, it's anywhere from about $500 for eight laps on up to the grand-daddy package, 32 laps for about $2,000 (prices are a bit higher for Friday-Sunday dates and holidays). To ride, it's $135 for three laps and $269 for six.
Fans respond in big ways.
"It was a 50th birthday present from my family and friends," Joseph Sudano writes on the company's Web site, 877stockcar.com. "I have been a fan of NASCAR racing since I was a kid. It is impossible to explain the absolute joy I had at the track.
"The program far exceeded any expectations I might have had going in. I also would like to let you know that I think the entire staff went over and above their duty to make the day truly memorable."
Located within easy driving distance of major metropolitan areas like New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Baltimore, the company has never really ventured to facilities other than Pocono. It ran at the now-defunct Nazareth just once, in 2000.
"Pocono Raceway has the highest population density around it of any NASCAR track," says Fox, an active SCCA racer who also ran the June ARCA event at Pocono. "Within a 200-mile radius of Pocono Raceway, there's 65 million people. You could do a 200-mile trip in four hours, and that's the distance that most people will drive and not get a motel room. So you can get here early in the morning, spend a great day at the track and then go home."
In the end, it's all about the experience.
"We try to have this be as authentic and as safe as possible, and give people the best value we can," Fox says. "In this challenging economy, everybody's got to work hard. But the guys who work hard, they want to play hard, too. We have a lot of real cool things that you can do."
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