He
You ever in Riverside, California,
come out, check us out here at Adams Motorsports Park.
I think you'd love the 60-mile-an-hour go-kart.
So Troy Adams and his wife run this park,
and it's been in the family since about 1960.
And it's about the longest
running course in the United States,
and Troy's also trained world champion drivers.
He was on the NASCAR circuit,
so he's a former professional driver.
And he's a guy that many kids nationwide
seek out to come here and learn from him.
Tell me about your background, though.
Adams Motorsports Park was founded from my grandmother
and grandfather. It was a Christmas gift.
Because of I've been around it so much
and kind of picked it up, I was actually pretty good.
So started winning a lot of races
and then went on to do some things in NASCAR.
Went into coaching, and it's just upward from here.
With your coaching, what makes a great driver?
I think it takes the same
as being a great wrestler, right?
Little bit of crazy.
A lot of hard work and ethic and vision.
Billy is the guru of all gurus in cart racing, multi-champion.
What level are you at as far as a competition goes?
Yes, I'm four-time SuperNats champion.
Once a year, everybody comes from all over the world
to the SuperNats in Las Vegas.
That's where the biggest race of the year is,
and it's called the SuperNationals.
On a good day, when conditions are good,
how fast would a car like this go?
Oh, it'll go ...
On this track, I think we're usually doing about 88,
89 mile an hour, and they stop on a dime.
There's a huge thing about being so low to the ground,
is the agility of the car is off the charts.
Right.
So that's why you get the IndyCar guys
and the F1 guys coming back to the sport
even after they've already made it.
-They come back to go-karts. -Yeah.
They'll come back to Troy for coaching
because this keeps you sharper
than anything else on the planet.
Guarantee, of all the things you've driven,
when you get on the gas on this,
when you get off, you'll be like, "Holy crap."
-Yeah. -"Okay, this is the real deal."
-Yeah. -All right. We're ready.
Gas on the right. Brake on the left.
We want to try not to use them at the same time.
The car's all about balance.
More important for me is hand positioning and eyes, right?
So if you see me doing up and out,
it's really just get your eyes up and look out.
Yeah.
With front and rear brakes on the car,
if you get into a panic situation,
you come in the corner a little hot
or you just grab the pedal a little bit too hard,
and you see a tire lock,
your instinct is going be grab more brake pedal,
get the car to stop more.
-Yeah. -It's the opposite.
As soon as that tire locks, you got to get off the pedal.
We'll start you off fairly slow, and then we'll pick it up.
Might spin out a couple times, but if you don't,
that just means you're not trying.
When you say spin out ...
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
We're not ... Whoa! We're not spinning out.
You nervous at all for your first lap?
I am a little bit nervous.
I'm kind of in my head a little bit.
Hey, but you know what? He's an outstanding coach,
so I'm just going to listen to him
and make my way down the track. Ready, Billy?
-Oh, I'm ready. -Let's get it.
If the helmet fogs up, just stop breathing.
Ready?
Go ahead. Steve's first time out following Billy.
Wet. Billy's getting him going a lot faster
than what I thought we'd be going right now.
Come on. Come on. Come here. Come on. Come on. Come on.
Right there. He's doing a phenomenal job.
First time in the kart, at this speed, he can actually drive.
Kind of surprising.
Driving around this track for the first time,
my adrenaline was pumping.
We're going faster than I expected.
Every time we come up on a big puddle of water,
Billy manages to swerve around it, keep his speed,
and I just careen right through it.
I don't know why he keep going through the puddles
when he sees Billy missing it.
He like a kid in a candy store. Can't stay out of the water.
What do you think?
Holy cow! I got an arm pumping. Hell, my arm is jacked up!
That was awesome. Well, you did great.
-Everything you said was true. -Yeah.
I'm too tense. I'm over-driving. I almost skidded out there,
and I got a grip on the steering wheel like this.
Just a couple little things. What I want you to do
is when you start getting to this midway or really the Adams,
then start giving me a little bit more brakes.
-Okay. -So slower, inch you down,
so it won't force you up the hill.
That's one thing. Then eyes out through there.
Billy keeps missing this big puddle,
and you driving through it like we in off-road.
-I tried to take a shortcut. -Phenomenal job.
Let's do it again.
Man, I got to relax. What's your grip?
If you're the steering wheel, I'm like this.
-Okay, and I'm like this. -Really?
-Yeah. -Okay.
This is all you need. Just try to relax.
-Just relax. -Breathe.
Down the straight away.
-Yeah. -He's doing really well.
For the first time [Indistinct].
Yeah, but I bet you $20 he's got three laps.
-Three? -So we just talked about getting
his eyes up a little bit,
making sure that we're missing the big puddles.
You hit the big puddles, water's getting into the carburetor
and everything else.
It's my second time out,
and I feel like I'm getting the hang of it.
I'm loosening my grip, missing the puddle and then ...
Oh, we got a spinout over there.
Earlier, Billy told me if I didn't spin out,
I wasn't trying.
Well, Billy, there's proof that I was pushing it.
I hit every puddle that I could hit.
-Oh, we saw. -God dang it!
They had a bet on you, you wouldn't make it three laps.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah, and all of them lost they money.
All of them lost because you made it, so ...
-But I did spin out. -Oh, yeah.
For never driving one of these, in the rain,
that was phenomenal. I don't sugarcoat it.
If you was horrible, I would be like,
"We don't need to do this [BLEEP] no more."
-Yeah. -But no, just the biggest thing
was when you're 2 feet in, it's panic.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So don't be on the brake in the turn.
Be on the brake approaching the turn.
-Yes. -Then off and then gas out.
-Yeah. -Okay.
I'll fix this up real quick. Give me like 20 minutes.
Feel bad that I broke a car. How much more to go?
I think the clutch is welded onto the crank shaft, so ...
See that's the thing, when I mess something up,
I mess it up really, really big.
My practice rounds following Billy were a lot of fun.
Now, it's time for me to test my skills against
Troy's up-and-coming students
and some pro racers on Billy's level.
Now, you guys also feel like I got a pit crew now.
All right. Get ready, you guys. Do six laps.
Make sure we pass on the right. Be smart out there.
First one here to the checkered, wins.
Be easy on our guest. Well, not that easy.
We take off, and I'm just running through my checklist.
Loose grip. Avoid puddles. Eyes up.
Billy and I started at the front of the line,
so it's our lead to lose.
And I'd be happy to come in second,
but pretty quickly I get passed.
I'm dropping to third place now. Let's see if I can keep it.
Stay out that big puddle. There you go!
Steve may have learned something!
But they're coming quickly.
These guys have no issues speeding around me,
and after a few passes,
I've dropped down to sixth place.
So Steve's doing pretty good! It's awesome to see a guy
like that being able to handle all the weather
and the storm that we've just gone through and still going.
And he just goes in big!
Right around lap three, rain turns my luck around.
The thing is,
I've had a chance to practice on this watery track,
unlike the guy that used to be in fourth place.
I done lost count of how many laps because I'm just laughing.
Everybody going off the track.
As guys spin out left and right,
I get myself all the way back up to third place.
I just need to hold it through one more lap,
but I'm not the only one gunning for bronze.
Some of our more rookie drivers are behind him.
They're trying to figure out how to get by.
Good race right here with these two guys.
Whoa, hold onto it, Steve.
-How was that? -My heart's pumping.
Adrenaline rush. A total thrill. It's wet out here.
Got some great drivers. A freaking blast!
[Indistinct] first, I'm going to say annual
because now we got to do it again!
Every year, Steve coming out with us!
I'm going to give Billy the flag this time.
Hopefully, next time it's yours.