14 JUNE 29 - JULY 5, 2005
NEWS
Road to a dream
Race-car driving student prepares for a more fast-paced career
PHOTOS AND STORY BY ERIN DROSTE edroste@kansan.com KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Gentleman, start your engines!
Though he has heard the phrase thousands of times, Corrie Mathews will never tire of it. "It sends chills up and down my spine every single time I hear it"; Mathews, Overland Park junior, said. "If you're not already in the zone, those words will put you there."
The zone is where Mathews goes every time he drives a race car. He has worked as a driver for the Richard Petty Driving Experience for the last three years. He gets paid to teach people how to drive race cars around the Kansas Speedway, and other Petty locations, at speeds up to 165 miles per hour.
"There are people who save up for years to run 8 or 18 laps with us at Petty and they're like 40, 50, even in their 60s," Mathews said. "I get paid to travel around and drive race cars at the age of 21. I could die happy tomorrow."
"He really didn't play with cars," she said. "No more than other kids did."
2. I could die happy tomorrow.
Mathews' passion for racing began when he was just a child after watching a cousin race go-karts. Jana Mathews, his mother, said it was a fluke that he developed an interested in racing.
"He really didn't play with cars," she said. "No more than other kids did. His introduction into the world of racing began a lifetime of speed and adrenaline that Mathews said he couldn't picture his life without. If he wasn't driving, he said, he would be working for a team on pit road or as a mechanic—something that kept him close to the sport he loved.
"Racing is a part of me in every way, shape and form," Mathews said. "I had this girlfriend once who told me if I didn't stop racing she'd leave me. Boy, I miss her."
Mathews' passion for racing is a dangerous one that has led to several accidents. He has suffered torn ligaments, cracked ribs in the front and back and a severe concussion -and all that from just one wreck.
"I've been in enough wrecks to know they hurt, they cost money and you need to avoid them," Mathews said.
Mathews' racing is a large source of worry for his mother who said that even having grown up with racing, it was a lifestyle she would never get used to. She said after having seen Mathews wreck and how he handled himself, she had confidence that he knew what he was doing.
Before the drivers can take the driver's seat, Mathews takes the Richard Petty Driving Experience holds several classes a day w of driving a race car.
SEE RACER ON PAGE 16
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