I'm really an ordinary guy who gets to do extraordinary things--like get in somebody else's car and try to go 200 mph. You see, the Porsche people had been to my garage and I took them for a ride in my Stanley Steamer. The next thing you know, they're asking me to take a Carrera GT to Talladega and set some records. I guess they thought if an average pinhead like Jay Leno could drive one of these cars at 200 mph, it would show how safe and reliable the car is.
In case there isn't a Carrera GT on your block, it has a 5.7-liter V10 that puts out 605 hp. It also has air conditioning, a stereo, a navigation system and a cockpit full of leather. The fact that it can go nearly 200 mph on a racetrack is amazing.
Talladega is pretty amazing, too. Formerly known as Alabama International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway is 2.66 miles around with, essentially, three major turns. And it's banked steeply. You may not realize how steep that 33-degree banking is, but when I tried to walk across the track to the outside wall, I couldn't stand upright. I had to get down on my hands and knees. At anything less than 100 mph, your car sorta falls off the track.
I don't think I'm a particularly skilled or talented driver. But I don't tend to overreact and, if I watch someone else do something, I figure I should be able to do it, too. Right? If I don't panic, that is.
Luckily, I had a terrific teacher in David Donohue. His father, Mark Donohue, was one of America's best drivers 30 years ago. He won the Indy 500 in '72, and raced in Formula One as well as in the TransAm and CanAm series. He also set a 221.160-mph closed-course speed record at Talladega in a Porsche 917/30 on Aug. 9, 1975. That was just 10 days before he was killed while practicing for the Austrian Formula One race. It just seemed right for his son to return to Talladega in a Porsche and set some records.
David was patient with me. Maybe more patient than I would be if someone came up to me and said, "Jay, this is Larry Johnson; he's a machine operator from Des Moines. We want you to teach him to do stand-up comedy on The Tonight Show." We spent a lot of time in the car, first with David driving, telling me what to expect. It's fascinating, the things that go through his mind. For example, he told me to be careful because parts of the track were in the shade so they'd still be damp in the morning. He pointed to the painted stripes and said, "There's still some dew on the lines, and you might slide on that." He's noticing dew on white lines and I'm thinking, "Don't hit a deer out there!"
