Spider Michaels

I’ve led a pretty charmed life by most standards.  I had a job as a professional lifeguard through college and that job lasted for 13 years.  I had the most fun a person could have through college and my 20’s.  I lived it up to the Max.

After lifeguarding, I began working in motorsports.

In this new job, I got to travel to every major city in the U.S. each year.

I’ve seen America from coast to coast and most in between. And I loved my job.  Who wouldn’t?

I had a lot of responsibilities as a Marketing person working for a Motorsports Marketing Agency.

One of my many jobs was to travel all over the country and work these race car driving schools.

The company my agency represented would pay for their VIP guests to attend these driving schools as a perk or reward for something well done.  Sometimes it would be really good customers.  Other times it would be really good employees. But mostly it was sales reps and their clients.

I got to go to all of these major race tracks around the country to help facilitate the schools.

There would be about 30 people in attendance at each race track.  I helped organize the event and sometimes I shot video of the people driving the cars.  They loved getting a video of the day they drove a race car.

At every driving school there was some reason or another that they needed me to drive also.

Sometimes someone didn’t show up.  Other times they needed someone to keep the cars in the correct rotation so the class would stay on track.  Don’t ask me how this makes sense, but they ask me to drive and I jumped on the chances.

At the schools, they took your picture inside the car.  Here are a few of mine.

The driving schools had their NASCAR race cars painted the same as the real cars, so it was really cool to say that I drove Jeff Gordon’s car at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

I was able to drive at the Daytona International Speedway three times.  Twice in a NASCAR race car and once in an open wheel race car.

It’s important to stress that Daytona is an important track with a lot of history.  Each year, the Daytona 500 is held there. And many drivers have died there.  The most famous being Dale Earnhardt.

Here’s two pics from my Daytona experience.

I also got to drive a race car around the same track that hosts the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Here’s a pic from that.

Here’s a photo from the day I drove an open wheel race car at Daytona.

Driving open wheel race cars is a little bit different than driving a NASCAR race car, but they’re still a lot of fun.

Here’s a pic from my driving experience at the Phoenix International Raceway.

I have more photos from those days and one day I’ll look for them.  Here’s a couple with the entire class.

I’m at the top of the picture, far left.

I’m in the middle, holding the banner.

I’m on the far right in this one.

I’m second from the right, holding the banner.

I’m on the far right.  This was a road course in Dallas and I really enjoyed driving these cars.

These next two pics are from the track in Miami.

I also got rides by professional drivers when I was at the tracks.  Here I am, in the back, getting a ride around the Miami track in an IRL race car.  We went very fast.

Here’s my wall in my office area with all of the plaques from the driving schools.

I won’t say I’m even close to as good as a professional driver after going to all of these driving schools, but I’m a pretty good driver at high speeds.

I also have some videos for you to check out.  I recorded 2 of my Ride-Alongs.  One was at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the other was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Another video I made was of my Driving Schools experiences.  I hope you enjoy these videos.

I had a lot of fun working in motorsports and also going to all of these driving schools for free.  I could have never been able to afford the cost of all that travel and the price it costs to attend a professional race car driving school.

I’m thankful everyday for all of the good luck I’ve had, and continue to have, in life.  I’ve had some lows, but my highs are sometimes much higher than most people.

I’ve heard good things come to good people, so I try to be a good person. And it’s worked out well so far.

That completes this NASCAR 101 Course.  Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation.  Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.

To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.

Motorsports Degree Requirements

Any questions and/or comments may be directed to the following:

Dr. Spider Michaels, Phd.

https://SpiderMichaels.com

Spider@SpiderMichaels.com