Gear provided at the Andretti experience makes students feel like real racecar drivers. Lutz even opened a stock car experience in 2005 to compete with his old Richard Petty outfit: NASCAR Racing Experience. Everything is digital now (no more stopwatches!) and HD Go Pro cameras capture a driver's every move on track. Over the years the name has changed – from CART Driving 101, to Driving 101, to Mario Andretti Racing Experience - and so has the product. Lutz’s cars were even used in Stallone’s 2001 movie “Driven.” In addition to racing fans, celebrities passed through, too, adding cache to the school – two were singer Leann Rimes and actor Sylvester Stallone. Early going was tough, but by 2001 Lutz had negotiated the corner - a $200,000 profit on sales of $3.3 million. To launch CART Driving 101, he put in $5 million and opened for business in 1999 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Retirement didn't suit Lutz well so he built another school, this time with faster, open-wheel formula cars. Leo Hindery, then president of TCI, liked his own experience so much he asked to buy Lutz’s shares in 1997. After three years, the school had sent 35,000 happy campers through without serious mishap.
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