Pop goes the clutch: Newsday reporter attempts driving stock car

LONG POND, Pa.

Can someone who has never driven a manual-transmission car successfully operate a four-speed stock car on a racetrack? That was my question - and concern - when I accepted NASCAR's invitation to drive one of their cars around Pocono Raceway last week.

The answer is yes . . . with lots and lots of help.

In a scene you'll never see on race day, it took four guys pushing the car while in neutral and another to move it into fourth gear while reaching through the passenger window. All I had to do was take my foot off the clutch and step on the gas, and suddenly I was cruising.

Well, sort of.

It is true that anyone who enrolls in the "Stock Car Driving Experience" has a chance to drive a race car at a speed well north of 150 miles per hour. For $499, you get to drive eight laps around the 2.5-mile track, picking up velocity each time around.

But with my hands tightly gripping the steering wheel and my teeth nervously grinding with every bump, I was perfectly content to take my time going around the track. What's the big rush, anyway?

It was actually somewhat of an accomplishment that I even made it into the driver's seat of a stock car that day, given the fact that I was "four-speed challenged," as someone there jokingly referred to me. But the NASCAR people never did seem as concerned as I was about my lack of stick-shift experience.

To give me a crash-course driving a manual transmission, NASCAR arranged a meeting with one of its top up-and-coming drivers - Paulie Harraka of Wayne, N.J. - in the parking lot an hour beforehand.

Harraka, 20, is a brave man, and not just because he aspires to drive a car 200 mph in race traffic that could essentially rank as rush-hour congestion on the Long Island Expressway.

What really takes guts is offering to let me drive his personal car while attempting to teach me to drive a stick shift.

Harraka, who is about to enter his junior year at Duke, was remarkably patient as I tried to learn the rhythm of releasing the clutch, stepping on the gas and changing gears. He didn't seem to get too annoyed or frustrated when his car stalled a few times.

But just in case the damage I was doing to his car might be getting on his nerves, I conveniently changed the subject a few times to the reality show he told me he's going to be on next month on BET.

On "Changing Lanes" he said he's going to compete with 29 other drivers for a spot on a NASCAR racing team, which seems a lot more exciting than spending a summer afternoon like this. But I wasn't going to say anything.

A few minutes later, Harraka told me I was ready, and then I was on my way to the classroom to join the others going through the "Stock Car Driving Experience" on this day.

Together we watched two safety videos, signed some release forms and listened to all types of other important information, none of which I was retaining. I was too busy thinking about how the heck I was going to get this car into fourth gear.

I even tried to back out, but lead instructor Steve Fox wouldn't let me. He convinced me that all I had to do was simulate drawing the letter 'H' with the stick shift and next thing I knew, I'd be doing my best Jimmie Johnson impersonation. And as I entered the car feet first, there was Fox peering in through the passenger window, saying "Be the H" over and over.

Alas, once it was go time, I was anything but an H. My shift movements were more like a Z, S, K and G all blended together.

I never got out of first gear, as you can imagine, finally stopping the car right at the end of pit row.

But give Fox and his crew credit. They still found a way for this rookie who has never driven a manual transmission to get on the track. They simply took the shifting part out of the driver's equation.