While Thursday had nothing Miata-specific to really offer us, Friday brought out some fun times!
Myrtle Beach Speedway
Last year we had a blast at the track, this year… Honestly, not so much, I hate to say it.
The autocross sucked, in a word. The guy who manages the track put it together, and while he rubbed me the wrong way last year, it wasn’t unbearable like it was this year…
And I mean unbearable. Apparently, they open up the infield of the track and host the occasional drift event, which would have been badass had one been going on, I’m sure. It probably also provides a fair bit of income to the track — organized drifting is catching on in the States big time!
Instead of simply pointing this out, the guy went as far as to say that the kids who do it “push it too far,” so they end up crashing into the guard rails that are there. Well, okay, yeah… Drifting is about pushing it, and even professional drifters crack up their cars, no matter how long they’ve been drifting. Shit happens.
He went on to say that most of the kids who do that don’t go back, and then drive around with damaged cars and un-matching paint, and I think somewhere he found a place to fit in the word, “punks” as well.
Needless to say, I was livid. I had a fair bit of self-control, because I had just had some old guy, who ditched SCCA Formula Vee racing for nascar call a lot of my friends and much of my adopted car culture “poor punks.” (FWIW, neither my 240SX nor my Miata are all the same color, so I did take it pretty damn personally.)
I could continue that rant, but I’m sure you can understand why it got to me… Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who realized that he was full of crap (arrogant as hell, beyond being “point blank and brutally honest”) and had no clue how autocross goes. Yes, he even said he’s never autocrossed, yet here he was setting one up and running it… Ugh. I was glad I wasn’t driving, and many of us seasoned autocrossers didn’t drive or did very little of it.
The Oval
Of course, the track is really just an oval for silly driving. But the husband enjoyed taking out the S2000 and letting her wind out without having to be in fear of cops. She sounded great! 
I also got to practice those awesome panning shots I love to take…. Hehe.
Pictures!!
I’ll quit babbling, because nothing more really went on… But enjoy some of the snapshots from the day!
Some of the early arrivers, there were a lot more as the morning rolled on!
One of the seasoned drivers & Miata.
Charlie's bright yellow Miata made for a nice picture! x3
Last year's runner-up still didn't get her autocross champion title this year. Maybe next year??
I love the cool things like this that you only find at tracks...
A few of my panning shots of the S2k turned out, I'm still insanely proud of them!
Aside from loving this Laguna Blue's color, I loved the license plate!
I was quite disappointed in track day this year as well.
The AutoX layout was BEYOND confusing. I know Al had spent a good amount of time making the course drivable at all. The track owner was a bit of an a$$, especially after someone wrecked their car on the oval. Oh and they were not young punks, but I figure in their 50′s.
His little “pep talk” after that made me not want to deal with him again. (and I’m one of the committee hosts of the M@MB event)
Yeah, it was really a shame… Last year was not as bad as it was this year, for sure.
“Young punks” being the drifter comment the guy made, which was totally uncalled for, period. You don’t like them, quit taking their money. That simple.
It would be better if they’d deal with the oval, the right way, and if you could get a copy of an actual like SCCA autocross set-up to use. Something that makes sense and is actually useable. It’s not that hard, honest… If they’d have bothered to try to learn about it anyhow.
whatever. what made it worse was him talking about how awesome he is, and volunteering to drive your car around the autocross course to show you how its done(even though hes never autocrossed.)Im sorry, but he beat the crap out of our car last year and i damn sure was not letting him near mine. Sorry, you need to know what your doing to drive my … See Morecar, you cant just hop in and know excactly everything its going to do. The funny thing is, i told him that to after he asked me if he could take it for a spin. I think i pissed him off….
I’m Gonna Drive a Ferrari!! | Cars X Girl // Jan 26, 2012 at 6:44 am
[...] a non-car-related trip at all. We often travel because of cars or something to do with cars, a la Miatas at Myrtle Beach or my excursion with the Porsche Club to Canada. Even when we visited Seattle last fall, we had to [...]