Erpeldings drive at Iowa Speedway

What married man hasn't debated what gift to get for his spouse.

Kevin Erpelding thought of an original idea for wife Denise's Christmas present. In fact it was such a good idea of a gift, he was jealous and decided to join in on the fun.

Kevin purchased a package from the Rusty Wallace Experience last October for his wife's Christmas present. The package allows an individual to drive an actual NASCAR vehicle on a track. As the date approached, Kevin became jealous of the present he had purchased for his wife and wanted to participate as well. The Sunday before Father's Day, the couple drove at Iowa Speedway in Newton.

'I won, but we didn't actually race against each other,” Denise said.

Before they were ever allowed on the track, there was a class they had to attend.

Kevin owns Archer Appliance and Denise works at Horak Insurance. Those workplaces figured into their driving experiences.

'They scare you a little bit because you take out an insurance policy so that you can drive the cars,” Denise said. 'If you hit the wall or do any damage to the cars it is $1000 charge. If you don't get the insurance, more than likely there will be $15,000 or more one has to pay. We definitely paid attention in the class.”

Kevin is used to hauling appliances around so he has a much more careful driver and slower.

'We always laugh about that,” Denise said. 'I like to drive with my hair on fire.”

Only four or five cars are allowed on the track at a time. Participants are seated in different cars according to their size. The seatbelts and the HANS (head and neck restraint) device is an experience in itself. Those with claustrophobia probably won't be able to handle being strapped in.

'I never thought I was a mirror person but not having that peripheral vision and having all that metal around me scared the crap out of me,” Denise said. 'You can't move yourself, so you really rely on them telling you where you are on the track and if there are cars coming up.”

There is a person in the control tower assigned to each car.

'You are in charge of the car but you have to do what they tell you,” Denise said. 'You can hear what they're saying but you can't communicate with them. If you start hot-shotting and doing crazy stuff, they are going to pull you off the track. It is all about safety. They do not want anybody to get hurt.”

It took a couple laps to get used to the four-speed and the lack of power steering.

'In my first two laps, the gentleman in the tower kept telling me ‘turn, turn, turn' because I got up a little high on the track and close to the wall,” Denise said. 'By the fifth lap, they were telling me, ‘you got it.' I don't think they knew who is in the car, so they didn't know if they were talking to a male or female, they were just talking to a particular car. After the third lap I was ready to go. My spotter told me, ‘step on it.' It was quite entertaining.”

There was a camera on the car that recorded the time spent on the track.

'I had a lot of family and friends that saw that and that made them want to do it too,” Denise said.

There is not a speedometer but there is a tap out when a certain speed is achieved, which is 110 miles an hour.

'I made it tap out a couple of times,” Denise said. 'At first I wondered if I would be able to go that fast. I thought I could but I wasn't sure. I was pedal to the metal.”

There are different packages that are available and the Erpeldings paid for eight laps.

'It was so fun that when my eight laps were up I couldn't believe I was done already,” Denise said. 'It was quite an experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat. In a way I wish we lived closer to Newton so that we could do it more, but in another way I'm glad we don't because I think I would be spending a lot of money and a lot of time doing it as much as I could. It was so much fun.”