<Table>
<DIV class=body-head><SPAN class=headline>Anyone can be a speed/adrenaline junky
for a day in Pennsylvania</SPAN>
<SPAN class=deck></SPAN>
<SPAN
class=byline>CHARLES SHEEHAN</SPAN>
<SPAN class=creditline>Associated
Press</SPAN>
</DIV>
<SPAN class=dateline>FARMINGTON, Pa.</SPAN><SPAN class=dateline-separator>
- </SPAN>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.</P>
At the steering wheel, fear is running laps around my spine, and it feels
like my feet might break through the floorboard - but the woman in the back seat
won't stop laughing.</P>
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 pro riding shotgun.</P>
Spring fever can strike particularly hard in Pennsylvania, where winter is
loathe to loose its grip.</P>
Fortunately, there are dozens of tracks and off-roading courses sprinkled
across the state where one can book a white-knuckle road trip sure to thaw even
the deepest winter-induced blues.</P>
Anyone who believes racing or off-roading is still a spectator sport, or that
only actors and millionaires can partake, has been steered wrong.</P>
You can spend as little as $25 for Friday Night Grudge Racing before a
thousand spectators at Maple Grove Raceway, in Mohnton, to determine once and
for all whether it is you or your pal who owns the fastest Yugo east of the
Mississippi.</P>
"Some people get out shaking after seeing the Christmas tree lights come down
and they go flying past the concrete guard walls," said George Alan Case, vice
president and general manager.</P>
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.</P>
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.</P>
Track owners have recognized that almost everyone needs the occasional
adrenaline fix, so they've tailored packages to fit nearly every taste.</P>
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."</P>
At Nemacolin's Off-Road Driving Academy, you learn just what a Hummer is
capable of during training at "The Rock." Then you, and up to four pals, 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."</P>
Later, perhaps, a serving of La Belle Farm guinea hen with buttered cabbage
and poached pear at Lautrec, Nemacolin's French bistro.</P>
Pig roast and beers more your speed?</P>
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.</P>
"We'll teach you to work on pavement, gravel and dirt," said Danny Yanda,
general manager. "Then we'll take you through the woods and a run through bogs,
up steep hills, everything, and then out for the pig roast. It's a really good
time."</P>
The race track is by no means a temple of testosterone.</P>
About 35 percent of the people racing motorcycles at BeaveRun are women,
Yanda said.</P>
Steve Myers, a driving instructor at Nemacolin, said he's had children rocked
to sleep in child seats as mom and dad tear it up in a Hummer H2. The Hummer H1,
available for the same price, is a little rougher.</P>
It's $275 for the training and the Hummer. Anyone in the vehicle can take a
spin during the two-hour ride. It's $60 if you want to go "Driving Miss Daisy"
style, with a professional driver taking you for a ride.</P>
Despite gentle reminders from Myers to keep my thumbs out of the middle of
the steering wheel (to avoid sprains or broken bones), a jaunt over "Rutted
Out," through "In the Trees Serpentine" and down the "Awkward Descent" at
Nemacolin is surprisingly nonviolent.</P>
The Hummer H2, the type you see most often on the road with no mud on it, is
a pretty smooth ride given the extreme terrain. I only slammed the skid plate
once against a rock.</P>
And the H2 has heated seats, making the wait for your turn at the wheel quite
toasty as you watch mud, rocks and sticks splatter and smack off the
windows.</P></Table>