One dead, one injured in accident at Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World

One of the user comments mentioned that the track is laid out for driving counter-clockwise, but apparently in 2012 there were modifications made to the track's infield when they introduced this Exotic Driving Experience, and the course is run clockwise for some reason. The Lamborghini struck the end of a guardrail, which wouldn't have happened had it been traveling counter-clockwise.

A similar thing happened just last year at an event at Summit Point Raceway (two miles from where I live). An instructor was killed in the passenger seat of a novice driver's Pontiac GTO when he lost control and slammed into a tree. An extremely rare occurrence, sure, but this is the very reason I would never want to be a race driving instructor.

The timing is particularly odd, so close to their permanent closing in June, presumably to make more room for Magic Kingdom parking. Very sad.

This guy describes exactly what the problem was. I can't even wrap my head around why you would let amateurs drive fast cars in an environment that's less safe than what you would require for pros. How completely strange. Definitely not doing right by the Petty name.

Has there been any reason as to WHY they ran this course backwards? I can't understand what difference it would make as far as experience, and clearly the track was not designed for it.

Someone suggested this as the reason for changing direction in the comments following an article I read last night: to save on tire wear (and ultimately money). As sad as it sounds, that's likely the reason.

Great article, Jeff. This situation hits me because as a car lover, I aspire to do this someday. I want to take both a day long racing class, and take part in an exotic car driving session. I hope the facts come to light, and that the appropriate steps are taken in the future to prevent this from happening again.