see also: photos from the visit
For anyone who likes speed thrills and feeling like a race driver,
Myrtle Beach's NASCAR SpeedPark delivers. I visited SpeedPark on August 16, 1999
with my dad, who was visiting from Nebraska. We're both big race fans, and had heard
and read much about the SpeedPark experience.
The biggest attraction to us (because we had heard a lot about it)
was Thunder Road and its 5/8-scale NASCAR cars, so that's where we went first, after
buying a book of tickets. All the tracks require tickets, which are discounted when
bought in bulk. My dad and I bought a $50 book which contained 58 tickets.
We managed to burn the entire book on six laps apiece on Thunder Road
and a race for both of us on the Competitor track. In short, you pay for your
thrills.
Thunder Road was a lot of fun, though I expected it to be a little
faster. Thunder Road is a half-mile road course with very tight turns and short
straightaways, and you race the clock rather than other cars. I was able to get
around the course in one minute and four seconds. My dad did it about two seconds
faster, and his time was the best that I saw.
The first laps my dad ran were almost ten seconds slower, because
the car he was in was kind of a dud. I definitely recommend spending some time
watching others drive the cars and even asking them how the car performed. A slow
car can be very frustrating, and on this day, the 12 car was very slow, while the 99 and
18 cars were fastest. You can tell a little about how the cars perform by watching
the scoreboard and listening to people after they finish their runs. Of course, some
people just aren't as fast as others.
The cars do have a little pep to them, responding quickly to the
accelerator. They are not, however, capable of running very fast. My guess is
that they have some kind of governor on them, which keeps them from going too fast.
This is probably a good idea, because I imagine that too much speed would result in chaos
around the course, because people would constantly spin out. I drove all the way
around the track with my foot on the floor, and around the tighter turns, I could feel the
back-end slide. With a little more juice, I just might have spun around.
There is plenty of room for a full-size adult to sit comfortably in
a Thunder Road car. You don't have to shift gears, so your only role is controlling
the accelerator, brake and steering. The only time I even touched the brake was to
slow at the end of each lap. Getting in and out of the cars is kind of tricky, but
most people should have no problem. Once in the car, you're buckled with a
three-point harness. Helmets aren't necessary.
Each lap on Thunder Road cost four tickets. Plus, you had to
buy a $2 license. Why the license was required, I have no idea. Maybe
eventually they'll keep track of speeds and times, but there was no way that they could
have done that while we were there. I was a little confused with the whole paying
and licensing structure, and no explanation was offered. Plus, I had heard that you
could compare your times with others, including Winston Cup drivers who had visited
earlier. If that capability exists, I didn't see it. Your times do appear
briefly on a scoreboard listing the last six or seven laps, but they're constantly rotated
according the latest laps.
Almost as much fun as Thunder Road is the Competitor track, where
you race 23 other half-scale cars around a high-banked oval. Signs everywhere tell
you not to bump, but any race fan knows that "rubbin' is racin'." Because
there are many cars around the track, you have an excellent chance of encountering others
during the course of the race, which I believe is 24 laps. Put NASCAR fans in such a
setting and the results are predictable, much contact and many spin-outs. I didn't
spin anyone out, but I did hit quite a few, as I rode the low-groove and refused to back
out of the throttle when people came down on me. Those running the tracks will
whistle and point at you for hitting others, but I don't think that they would do
anything, unless you were deliberately spinning others out.
As long as you're at SpeedPark, you should also check out the NASCAR
Cafe, which is just across the parking lot. We sure appreciated the cold brews after
an hour and a half in the cars under the sun. We also enjoyed dinner there.
It's a little pricier than the typical sports bar, but not outrageous when compared to
other theme restaurants.
Overall, we really enjoyed our afternoon at the NASCAR SpeedPark,
and I recommend the experience to anyone who enjoys speed and adrenaline rushes. It
would probably be best to plan on spending $50 for each person and to bring as many
friends as possible, so you can enjoy competing against each other on the various tracks.
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