PERFORMANCE RACE TRAINING CENTER OPENS AT IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY

PERFORMANCE RACE TRAINING CENTER
OPENS AT IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY


Irwindale, Calif. - - There's a fresh feeling of excitement at Irwindale as a new ownership team takes over the operations of the Speedway's on-site driving school.

The Performance Race Training Center, located right in the pit area of “LA's half-Mile Super Speedway”, is now up and running featuring a wide range of driving experiences for all levels of skill and interest.

Joe Oddo, successful businessman, race car owner/entrant, and avid motorsports enthusiast, heads up the new organization.  Oddo's racing experience goes back well over thirty years and his keenness for the sport and the people in it made his acquisition of the school a very easy decision.  “We're taking a 'hands-on' approach to the day-to-day operations of PRTC, we've got the best cars, the very best instructors, the best mechanics, and the best place to train and educate racing drivers,” said Oddo.  “And I'm here every day seeing to that process,” he concluded.

The word “Adventure” is well-applied at the PRTC.  Even the basic half-day introductory drive teaches as well as thrills the participants.  Everyone who takes the challenge of doing 10 fast laps around the tricky banked oval at Irwindale gets a whole different “slant” on the wide range of “management skills” that it take to hustle a 3,000-pound stock car around the fast half-mile.

Take equal parts of noise, wind, brake dust, and heat, add a chassis that's stiffer than a board, mix in big, wide slick tires and a whole bunch of stagger (making the car want to turn left while going straight ahead), about 500 horsepower under your right boot, and an instructor who's barking into your helmet radio like a Daytona 500 crew chief on the last lap … and just try to make 10 clean laps out there.  

When the first lapping session is over, every PRTC participant always says the same thing:  “… It just doesn't look or sound like that on television or when I'm sitting in the stands!”  Which is almost always followed closely by:  “When's the next session that I can sign up for?”

Not all of the Performance Race Training Center student will go on to a pro driving career … Fact of the matter is that many harbor no thoughts about becoming a full-time racing driver.  What they receive is a keener eye with which to enjoy and understand their favorite sport.  It's a totally personal, gut-level understanding of stock car racing that no in-car camera, no video game, no motion-control movie can ever even hope to provide.  Real is real at the PRTC … Nothing else even comes close.  

Some aren't really able to put the experience into words, but all who go through the process are forever changed in their perception and rewarded for their efforts with a new respect and appreciation of what it really takes “out there.”  That's what the PRTC strives to provide.

The Center's chief instructor is the redoubtable Wally Pankratz, who's not only a multi-time driving champ but a great teacher and great guy to be around.  Like his father before him, he's an integral part of the California and national racing scene and a keen observer of racing's ever-changing terrain.  

Pankratz is also very adept at explaining racing vehicle dynamics in terms that are not only technically accurate, but interesting as well.  His classroom session feel much more like buddy-to-buddy conversations and his track-side manner (guiding the drivers around the track on the radio) is just what one would expect when driving a speeding stock car: praise when you get it right, caution when you need to get it a little bit “righter”, and a brief (but heartfelt) “lecture” when you don't.  All of the above add up to make the PRTC school experience “fun” (Like a good workout leaves you sweating and just a little bit sore is “fun”.)

If the above description of fun sounds good to you … You know who you are, you now know where you can go to get some for yourself, all you have to do is pick a date to do it on.

Corporate programs, advanced training, special events, birthdays, anniversaries, you-dream-it-up events … all can be accommodated.  Custom-tailored events are On-site gourmet-quality catering (by Twin Palms) is even available.

For more information on Irwindale Speedway's new Performance Race Training Center call (877) 901-RACE toll-free or take a look at their website: www.racetrainingcenter.com.

IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY:  Doug Stokes (626) 358-1100 x 206

ADD:  Fans arriving at the Speedway before 6:45 PM on Saturday nights are invited to place their names in a drawing for a “Super Ride” in one of the PRTC two-seat stockers that very night at the Speedway.  Winners must be 18 or older and ready for the ride of their life around the super-fast half-mile.  


THANKS!