This was my SRT Track Experience at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 03-29-2015
8:00 - 8:30
8:30 - 9:00
9:00 - 12:00
1:00 - 4:00
4:00 - 4:30
Positives
Pointers
Improvements needed:
My take away
My Awards won.
8:00 - 8:30
- Sign in
- ID and thumb drive issued
- Breakfast provided. Eggs, Bacon, Pastries, Coffee, Water, Sodas
- Driver briefing.
- Drivers divide into two teams of twenty each
- Groups were called Team Yoda and Team Shake-N-Bake
9:00 - 12:00
- Team Yoda completes Autocross course
- Team Shake-N-Bake completes the Performace Drive
- Half way through, teams swap courses
- Events were located on a small course located just south of the motor speedway.
Autocross
Driving Dynamics - Race Track
12:00 - 1:00- Course is set up with 4 inch orange cones
- Timing starts when YOU choose to launch
- Timing stops at end of course by stopping the vehicle in the stop zone
- Objective is to complete the course in fastest time
- Penalties are added to lap time based on number of cones hit and/or not stopping within the stop zone.
- Vehicles Driven
- Two back to back laps in Dodge Charger SRT
- One lap in Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT
- The Charger is kept in manual first gear.
- Times
- Instructors - 28.xx
- Students - Fastest 29.759, Average 31.xx
- Fastest times generally were in the Grand Cherokee SRT
Driving Dynamics - Race Track
- Course is pre-existing at facility and varies by each SRT experience location
- There are four packs of three cars each
- Vehicles driven:
- Chrysler 300 SRT
- Dodge Challenger SRT
- Dodge Charger SRT
- Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT
- Instructor drives first vehicle, one Driver in each following vehicle
- Observers can ride with instructor
- Drivers get three laps per run
- Drivers get three runs each
- Lunch - Chicken/beef Tacos, Ice Cream
- Team Yoda Completed Drag Course
- Team Shake-N-Bake completed Race Course
- Teams swapped after 1.5 hours
Performance Drive
Hot Lap on race Track with instructor
- Same course and vehicles as used in morning Driving Dynamics session
- Speeds are increased above the morning session
- Objective is to beat your opponent to the finish line.
- Starting light is Christmas tree type
- Course is appx. 300 Feet from start to finish line
- Winner gets white slip, looser gets yellow slip
- Slip shows launch reaction time and finish line time
- Vehicles Driven
- Dodge Challenger SRT
- Dodge Charger SRT
- Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT
- Drivers are matched up randomly with a points structure for winning.
- Each driver gets 5 runs
- Time permitting, grudge matches are encouraged
Hot Lap on race Track with instructor
- Each driver does a ride along with an instructor.
- Instructor pushes the pace much faster than the previous laps with Drivers
4:00 - 4:30
- Complete surveys
- Final wrap up
- Awards given to:
- 1st and 2nd place Drag winners from each team
- Top three Autocross times
- Best Team Time
Positives
- Plenty of Soft Drinks, Power Aid, and Water Provided throughout the day
- Restrooms were close by each event.
- The staff was extremely positive, helpful and encouraging to drivers of all experience levels. They made everyone (even a young family member) feel welcome and encouraged appreciation for the SRT vehicles and the general driving experience.
Pointers
- On the Driving Dynamics, the most important thing they look for is that you are following EXACTLY in their tracks and are about three car lengths back. If you do, they will go faster.
- After completing a road track round, try to ride along with that instructor on his next round. He will explain why speed was kept slower in certain areas of the course based on how you were performing. Instructor will give lots of good pointers on how to corner the course.
- Drag Race
- Their equipment measures a zone to determine if you jump. You can actually launch slightly before the light turns green and not get DQ'd.
- DO NOT ENGAGE THE LAUNCH BUTTON ON THE JEEP. This feature is disabled. It will allow you to set it, but will cancel out when you launch, YOU WILL LOOSE THE RACE.
- The drag strip was in a parking lot with lots of loose gravel. If you just mash down the gas peddle wheels will spin on the gravel hurting your time. In the following video, my wife is slightly behind on the launch, but guy on right looses traction, she takes the win.
Improvements needed:
- Merchandise for Jeep SRT was not available for purchase.
- I paid $699 to be an extra driver and had to pay another $50 to get the thumb drive for the in car video recording. I felt like it should have been included in the price.
- The quality of the videos in my opinion is extremely poor, it is nice to have though.
- The Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT performed extremely well.
- The SRT experience is more about just having fun, than actually improving driver skill.
My Awards won.
1st Place Autocross - Dodge Pullover and Orange Cone
Team Autocross Winner - Orange Cone