Professional drivers aren’t the only ones who get to have fun on the track at the Iowa Speedway. During the next two weeks, dozens of racing fans will have the chance to don helmets and flame-retardant suits and learn how to put a 400-horsepower stock car through its paces at speeds of 130 mph or more.

Those enrolling in the Frank Kimmel Racing School can opt for a four-lap “ride-along” for $119, all the way up to the ultimate package: a two-day advanced racing school for $2,995, which will qualify eight participants to compete in a race at the speedway on Oct. 4.

“I think this is just an excellent opportunity to get into one and experience a little bit of what those drivers do, and have a little bit of fun,” said Barney Bushore, a Newton businessman who has signed up for the advanced racing school. The 51-year-old participated in a similar three-day program about seven years ago in North Carolina.

“I kind of made a promise to myself that if the opportunity came up again I would definitely pursue it,” said Bushore, CEO of Exec 1 Aviation at the Ankeny Regional Airport. “It’s definitely habit-forming.”

The racing experiences are offered by Chris Evans Inc., a company based in Portland, Ore., that began building stock cars two years ago and now provides a full menu of racing experiences with its fleet of nine cars. The midweek sessions that will be offered through Oct. 3 at the Iowa Speedway are one of 10 sets of classes the company will conduct this year at speedways across the western United States.

“Our school is primarily focused on getting the student in the car to a competitive level, or at least up to the level they feel comfortable driving,” said Chris Evans, the company’s founder and president. “To date, we’ve had great success. We run a pretty tight safety program. No one is ever out there beyond their physical capabilities. We just don’t allow them to burn down because that’s when accidents happen.”

Evans, who said he’s already discussing a return engagement to the Iowa Speedway next summer, said his plan is to build up to a fleet of 32 racecars that will be available as an event-enhancing act for races throughout the country. He has also leased his racecars for private corporate events and has arranged “arrive-and-drive” racing events for participants who have had some previous instruction in racecars.

Evans met Frank Kimmel, a seven-time Automobile Racing Club of America champion and the series’ all-time leading money winner, through Larry Clement, the owner of Kimmel’s race team and one of the Iowa Speedway’s owners. The school’s affiliation with Kimmel doesn’t extend to having him as an instructor, however.

Most of the instructors are amateur racecar drivers from the Portland area, Evans said.

“It isn’t that an instructor has to have a big racing resume or have a big pedigree,” he said. “They can have an amateur background. It’s a win-win: the beginner isn’t overwhelmed and everything’s done at a slow pace, so our safety level is relatively high.”

Participants can count on paying for any body damage or driver-induced mechanical failure they cause to the racecar while they’re driving it. They must also sign a waiver releasing the racing school and racetrack from liability should they be injured in an accident. Evans said they’ve not had any drivers injured, though a few people have been wounded in their wallets. The record so far for damages is $4,800, he said.

That driver was “a rather overzealous, A-type-personality individual who was just having way too much fun,” Evans said. “This guy picked up stuff real quick, and as a result, he’s pushing, he’s pushing. He did a spin and ended up clipping the tire wall and taking out two-thirds of the body.” The following day, he smashed the other side of the car as well.

“The good thing about our deal is we take credit cards,” Evans said. “We got him an estimate on the spot, he got out his credit card, and it was done.”

Clement said the top priority of the racing school, as the race series itself, is safety.

“(The school’s racecars) have all the safety features available in them,” he said. “It’s going to be an amazing experience.” During a recent exhibition event at the speedway in which about 50 ride-alongs were provided, Clement said he saw at least five people sign up for the school immediately after the ride-along.

First-time participants start out in the passenger seat of one of the four two-seater cars to become acclimated to the feel of the car and the track, and as they become comfortable they graduate to the driver’s seat. Once they’re behind the wheel, just getting out of first gear can take several 15-minute sessions, Evans said, though the pace of learning seems to accelerate as quickly as the racecars.

“Usually by the third or fourth session, we’ve managed to get confidence and we’ve gotten ourselves all the way up to fourth gear while maintaining shifting, maintaining braking and staying on track,” he said. From the very start of the instruction, all of the participants drive together in a group, led by a control car.

“It’s amazing; at the end of the day we’re actually having people who are running into the racetrack a little bit or doing a light spin,” Evans said. “They’ve advanced to the level of confidence that they’re pushing themselves.”

The half-day sessions are the most popular and provide most people with the best “bang for the buck,” Evans said.

“When we do a full-day event, that will give you two-plus hours of driving time, and that’s almost an eternity for someone who’s never been in a racecar before,” he said. “Typically in a day experience, for the last couple of sessions the majority of our customers say, ‘I just can’t do it; I’ve had it; thank you very, very much.’ I’ve never had anyone saying, ‘Gee, that wasn’t enough.’ It’s always the other way around. And [they also ask] ‘Can I sign up now for the next event?'”

For the Iowa Speedway sessions, “we’ve seen a high interest level here in the ride-along portion of the classes,” Evans said. “And believe it or not, the other large interest is in the two-day school culminating in a race. So it’s basically bedposts – the very beginning of the package levels and the end, with the stuff in the middle sketchy.”

Bushore, who signed up early for his class with the hope of being among the first eight who will compete in the race, said he has several friends who are talking about signing up as well. Because of his earlier experience at the Buck Baker Racing School session he attended at Rockingham, N.C., he has a good idea of what to expect from this course.

At that time, “I was fairly apprehensive about whether I’d go fast enough to make the instructors happy, and whether I’d be comfortable going that fast,” he said. “But once you go through it in the classroom and they explain a lot of it, I think it really settles a person’s mind about being comfortable with it. Then you just get to enjoy the moment.”

At his age, Bushore said, he has no aspirations of becoming a professional racecar driver. “I think I’ve missed that portion of my life,” he said. “I want to have some fun with it. You only go around once.”

For more information about the Frank Kimmel Racing School, visit www.chrisevansinc.com.