Has anyone been successful in getting into a road racing DE? If so, what track? How was it?

By DE do you mean Driver Education?

If so, I've been to a NASA HPDE and I thought it was well worth it. Lots of fun and fairly organized.

Yep, although I've seen DE interpreted as both Driver's Ed and Driving Experience. Did the roll bar or broomstick rule come up? Do you know if NASA rules differ much from SCCA on the roll bar issue? Most of the activity here is SCCA.

I don't think their rules differ much on the roll bar rule. I was lapping in my old car that had a roof though so I haven't had to deal with it.

You should always interpret it as Drivers Education. Most insurance companies will cover you for "education" but not a high performance track event.

Just ask the organizers about your concerns. Here in Dallas, the Z club does a lot of DE events. So does the Porsche club. I took my wifes Ram Air Trans Am to a Porsche club DE event as my very first one ever, and while there were a FEW snooty turds there, most were very nice and helpful when I made it VERY VERY clear that this was my first one ever and wanted to learn to do it all correctly. I made sure to leave my ego at home. They were very professional. Very safety aware. Very clear on the rules. Very careful to keep novices like I was separated from the faster, more experienced people. They set me up with a wonderful instructor, and I had such a great experience that I was instructing within 2 years, and was an event master 3-4 years later.

Unfortunately, some groups that do these are not as clear on safety as they should be. At every event, there is always at LEAST 1 *NEW* guy who has an out of control ego. I can spot that guy within the first 30 minutes of everyone arriving in the pits. If you have a good event master, he will assign an instructor that is a real hard ass to that dude to keep him from killing himself.....

__________________
2006 Deep Solstice NA...Traded in for:
2009 Sky Redline Ruby Red Limited Edition
5 speed manual/rear spoiler added/6 disc/Monsoon
Sport pedals/onstar/bluetooth
*Thank You Bob Lutz*