The 666 Miata Went Down to Georgia

Fun NMS fact of the day:  The #86 Miata has a VIN number ending in 666, making it one of the 10 most evil driving machines of all time.

Sunday was the Buccaneer Region's Coastal Empire Solo Event #4! It was a great time down on Hutchinson Island (just inside the Georgia border with South Carolina on the north side of Savannah) with the view of the big suspension bridge in the background. Official results haven't posted, but using my own timing on the in-car videos it looks like I had a pretty consistent day.  It was good to get into a more tight / technical course after the big sweeping turns at Michelin last weekend.  Unfortunately, my consistency was still about 3 seconds off of the pace of another Mazdaspeed Miata, but it's good to have a benchmark for improvement.

My calculations put the 6 runs as follows:

1.  DNF

2.  55.43

3.  55.20

4.  55.39

5.  55.34

6.  55.70

There were a total of three Mazdaspeed Miatas competing today.  Here's one of the other red ones.

The #86 car was trying to keep cool at mid-day with temperatures again climbing toward 90.

Getting the Garage Organized

Finally wrangled all my sockets and other tools today. The garage has been getting slowly more organized and cleaned up per the last month and now it's into the details. I don't suppose it will ever be obsessively tidy like the McLaren facilities, but it's good to know where all my tools are again!

The official results and points standings aren't out yet from Sunday's event at Michelin, but I know I had a less than desirable day. This Sunday I'll be making my way down to Savannah to get one more practice in before the next SCR points event in Darlington in one more week. 

More to come on Sunday! Stay tuned!

Ayrton Senna

May 1st 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the day that Ayrton Senna lost his life in a Formula 1 race at Imola Italy.  Most race fans would rank him at or near the top of any list of greatest drivers of all time, so there isn't a lot that I can add to that.  Just for winning three world championships I'd put him at the top of my list also.

Besides his accomplishments on the track, he also made a big difference in increasing the safety of racing in F1 today, probably mostly by the safer design of tracks and that F1 no longer races at Imola too.  Happily we can say that there have been no other fatalities during race weekends (practices, qualifying, and races) for 20 years in F1.

I guess my main thought is to stay safe in every car I drive, and always look out for the other drivers, including every day driving.

If you want to catch up on the highlights of Ayrton Senna's career, I'd recommend this Formula 1 webpage and their selected 20 highlights: Ayrton Senna on Formula 1.com