SRT Track Experience @ Texas Motor Speedway [/align][hr]

Short version "less, is well... less"
[/align]Longer Version.[/align]
I attended both the 2006 and 2007 versions of the SRT Track Experience. I just want to give my impressions of the event and contrast the differences.

In 2006 I drove 6 SRT Vipers under a variety of conditions.
In 2007 I drove zero Vipers, because only one was available and I was not one of the 50% of my group that got to drive it... at 15mph, like they did.

In 2006 I was given an hour of extremely valuable "chaulk talk" about vehicle dynamics, contact patches, how to hold a racing line.
In 2007 I was given a 3 minute Richard Petty advertisement, and led to the cars.

In 2006 I drove a Viper, Charger, and Crossfire through a very challenging autocross course, with and instructor by my side, providing valuable driving tips, and technique improvements.
In 2007 I drove a Crossfire, for three laps, and earned the best time of the day for all groups. I was probably because in 2006 an instructor SAT BESIDE ME AND SHOWED ME THE PROPER WAY TO NAVIGATE THE COURSE.

In 2006... well they did not have a "Drifting" event.
In 2007 they had a single Charger driving 15 mph, in a circle, on a wet soapy parking lot, in which you took three other drivers as passengers. Not one member of our group of 17 was able to successfully "drift" a car for more than 50 feet. The word drift is in quotations, because this event did not bare any resemblance to Drifting , except in name. If you were really lucky (one of the 8 of 17 drivers), you got to drive a Viper at 15 mph around a 100 foot circle. No one was able to drift it.

In 2006 I drove a Viper, Magnum, Crossfire, and 300 around a high speed road course, with minimum of three laps in each car. This single event made me want to attend SRT events for the rest of my life! Absolutely the best time I ever had in a car. Both friends and enemies had to listen to my bragging about driving hot laps in a Viper, all year long. Daimler Chrysler had incredible advertising from my word of mouth about how fantastic their cars are, and how generous they were for putting on an event like this. The three friends that were with me did the same.
In 2007 our turn at this section was aborted due to weather (high wind). But there was a Magnum, Charger, and Crossfire available for those that did. There were also in car camera footage available for $50 extra dollars. Sorry, no Vipers.

2006 on a scale of 1 to 10... well 10 !
2007 on a scale of 1 to 10 ... 4 ( added 3 points because the weather was not their fault, otherwise it would have been a 1, for the events I tried.)

If you take the 2006 event with the Skip Barber instructors who were all awesome, and remove 90% of the fun factor, 90% of the learning factor, and drive cars that well, you already own, you end up with the Richard Petty SRT Driving Experience.

Shame on you "King Richard", after following your career since the 60's it seems that you have really relaxed your standards. Maybe its time to find another line of work...

I recommend that no one spend a penny of their hard earned money on this "event". In the last ten years I have attended about 15 events similar to this, some I paid for, some were free. The free events were all better than this one.[/align]

 

Bummer, too bad the weather didn't hold for you and sorry to hear thecar assortment was a little lean.

Not sure what to think about the "drifting soap" thing, but I bet it was fun.

 

This is the reply from SRT:

Thank you for your feedback regarding your current visit to the SRT Track Experience @ Texas Motor Speedway.

With the new pieces in place for 2007, a lot about the Track Experience has changed from last season, with change comes a learning curve and some growing pains. As the season continues the new program and the new staff will focus on fine-tuning the program, looking at what works and what doesn’t.

We appreciate your feedback and assure you it has been reviewed by those involved in the decision making process of the SRT Track Experience

 

A canned response [&:]You’d hope they would take a little more time and provide a less generic response.

 

I think it says a lot when an event with only 75 participants, generated enough email, that a "canned response" was necessary. I think if they truly were trying to improve the experience they would have asked for an opinion from a participant on how to improve it. Seems like they are wasting a valuable resource, and instead leaving the idea's and changes to the one's that botched it in the first place...