ANDY CAGLE: Oval Time: Driving School Brings Out the Need for Speed

This time I didn't make the mistake of baiting the guy who held my life in his hands with my big mouth.

While the NASCAR boys spent their weekend playing in the puddles in California waiting on the skies to clear and the "weepers" to stop, um, weeping, before running a race (notice what I didn't write) in front of what is equivalent to the Pitt-Jolie brood Monday afternoon, I spent a good part of my weekend at my traditional last weekend in February haunt: The track formerly known as the North Carolina Speedway, the new Rockingham Speedway.

No, there weren't any of the big NASCAR stars there, but there was something that eluded the overly complicatedly named Auto Club Speedway of Southern California for most of the weekend -- racing.

Andy Hillenburg's Fast Track Racing School held its first classes at Rockingham this past weekend, and I was fortunate enough to get an invite to check out the school and take a few laps around the 1-mile track. So, I, and my little daughter, packed up and headed to the track because all week she told me she wanted to see the race cars.

The students were

there for the three-day course on racing on an oval track. Their curriculum included classroom instruction addressing safety and the basics of driving a stock car at high speed, followed by time in the passenger seat of a race car with instructors, then on to solo time in a stock car moving from slow speed beginner moves to advanced maneuvers in a four-car pack.

While there were no NASCAR stars in the group, I may have talked to the next Dale Earnhardt Jr. (a graduate of the course) or Jeremy Mayfield (also a grad). Many of the participants were aspiring racers looking to hone their skills behind the wheel.

Included in this group was Jill George. Excuse me, Dr. Jill George. George is one of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity drivers looking to move into the NASCAR ranks from the Iowa dirt tracks. Her laps at Rockingham marked her second foray onto asphalt.

There were also an assortment of ARCA drivers and others with fancy fire suits with sponsor logos who I am assuming were professionals of some ilk. For them it was professional development.

The other group of racers on this weekend were there because as one put it, "I don't fish, I don't hunt and I don't play golf. This is my hobby. I race."

Among this group was Steve Moore Jr. Moore, who has been coming to Hillenburg's school at Lowes Motor Speedway since 1995 and was very complimentary of the way the school is run.

"They do it right here," Moore said. "Everybody here wants to go fast. That's why we are here, but they do it right. You have to learn how to do it right before you can go fast."

Me, I just wanted to go fast and they were very obliging.

One of the instructors, Scott Holman, volunteered to babysit the little one while I got out on the track with driver Paul Booher. One of the students had some M&Ms so she didn't care what daddy was doing. So after I got the fire-resistant gear, HANS device and helmet on, Duke-boyed it through the window and strapped into one of Jimmie Johnson's old race cars, Paul and I were off. The last time I was in the same position, I made the mistake of taunting Dale Earnhardt Jr. about slow lap times at the track. I paid for it with three very harrowing laps that included a slight brush of the wall off of turn two and several prayers not to be taken bodily into heaven. This time, I kept my mouth shut.

Feeling a little more comfortable in the cockpit of a race car, I can now say that I love the way the world looks at 150 mph. There is just something about being strapped into a 750-horsepower stock car traveling around the same track made famous by Richard Petty, David Pearson and Benny Parsons.

While zooming around the track this time I could pay attention to the details that they were teaching at the school. Instead of wondering if I would die, I was looking for where Paul was rolling out of the throttle, braking going into one and three, and when he picked the throttle back up at the apex of the corners, letting the car drift up the track toward the wall on the backstretch.

I guess hanging out with the students and instructors for a couple of hours put me in a racer's mindset.

Fast Track Racing School returns to the Rockingham Speedway seven more times this year with the next classes scheduled for March 28-30.

In addition to the racing school, the track has hosted a number of NASCAR tests and commercial shoots. Stock car competition returns to the track May 2-4 with the ARCA Carolina 500 -- the first stock car race at the track since 2004 -- and again Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 with the Hooters Pro Cup American 200.

For additional information about track activities, tickets and the Fast Track Racing School visit www.rockinghamracewaypark.com, or give them a call at (910) 205-8800.

We all wanted racing back at Rockingham. Andy Hillenburg and his people made it happen. As they say, it's time to put our money where our mouth is.

Andy Cagle can be reached at andycagle@earthlink.net