Be daredevil driver for a day

FARMINGTON, Pa. — As the truck rolls over the muddy bank and plunges into the depths, muddy water splashes against the windows and washes over the hood in an instant. The tires are sucked into the muck.

I'm at the steering wheel and fear is running laps around my spine. It feels like my feet might break through the floorboard — but the person in the back seat won't stop laughing.

Rain had been falling steadily for 10 hours, transforming the forest floor to standing water and burnt-almond mud — a perfect day for a drive in a rented Hummer, with a professional riding shotgun.

Pennsylvania is home to dozens of tracks and off-roading courses where any amateur can book a white-knuckle road trip like this and call it fun.

Anyone who believes racing or off-roading is still a spectator sport, or that only actors and millionaires can partake, has been steered wrong.

You can spend as little as $25 and bring your own wheels for Friday Night Grudge Racing before a thousand spectators at Maple Grove Raceway, in Mohnton, to determine once and for all whether you or your pal owns the fastest subcompact east of the Mississippi.

Or you can drop $1,000 at the BeaveRun MotorSports Complex, in Wampum, and round the bends at triple digits in a rented Formula One-style car.

Whether it is a Ferrari Testarossa, or a Ford Tempo, a Hummer, or a Hyundai, you can get in it and race it in Pennsylvania — no experience necessary.

Track owners have recognized that almost everyone needs the occasional adrenaline fix, so they've tailored packages to fit nearly every taste.

At Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa, a posh retreat tucked away in southwest Pennsylvania, visitors can buy the "Adventures in Mud" package, a two-hour romp through the woods in a Hummer, followed by a Hungarian mud facial that "remineralizes, hydrates and balances."

At Nemacolin's Off-Road Driving Academy, you learn just what a Hummer is capable of during training at "The Rock." Then you and a couple of friends can attack severe terrain that, for reasons that become obvious very quickly, go by names like "The Downhill Slide," "Awkward Descent" and the dastardly "Triple Dipper."

Later, perhaps, you'll recover over a serving of La Belle Farm guinea hen with buttered cabbage and poached pear at Lautrec, Nemacolin's French bistro.

Pig roast and beers more your speed?

That's 90 miles to the north at BeaveRun MotorSports, where it's pork on a spit and some suds after Hummer training and a day in the slop.