The past Saturday I planned to travel out to Virginia International Raceway and meet up with some of my old friends that I get to see occasionally, the Mazda Sports Car Club of North Carolina. When I got my first RX7 a few years ago, somehow I stumbled on their internet mailing list. I managed to get on the list and got to know these guys. My first experience with RX7 mailing lists had been what the RX7 people refer to as “The Big List”. My initial (and short lived) impression of the big list was the primary subjects related to stereo intallation and who was the biggest jerk. I had recently bought a new car that I knew very little about, I needed to know how to keep it running. The MSCCNC guys seemed like a bunch of guys that had RX7’s and Miatas and discussed what they needed to keep them running properly and take them to various track events. I knew I would fit in OK with these guys.
Long story short is that they accepted me into their group, even though I lived in Virginia, not NC. I guess that was OK since their big events seemed to center around Virginia International Raceway. So I would meet up with most of their members from time to time at VIR. That and the mailing list, which was mostly replaced by their forum, and we all became pretty good internet friends with a common interest.
They had in the past put on various social events that I wanted to attend, but the usual family and life issues kept me from driving 4-5 hours for these events over the years. But their 4th (or was it 5th or 6th) annual RBQ event was planned for VIR. I was extremely busy at work lately, but forced myself to take the refreshing break. The plan was I would drive the 3.5 hrs from my SE VA home and meet them at the gates at VIR adout noon on Saturday. Sounded good.
I leave at the time to get there with a little time to spare. The drive was very plesant, exactly what I needed to wipe the clutter from recent work pressures out of my head. Gas prices are high everywhere. The day before I fill up my car at $2.29/gal (best I have seen lately) with good ole Citgo regular (advantages of a normally aspirated rotary that loves lower octane). On the drive out gas prices area about $2.50+- everywhere, until I get to South Boston VA and I see all the stations have $2.29, cool, I’ll stop there on the way back home. Other thing I notice is that it is cold!! But I have prepared, with multiple layers of shirts and a jacket.
I get to the track and see several Miatas and RX7s already waiting. I get out and meet Johnny and his wife Karen and 2 of their RX7s, Princess and Tiffany. Princess is a sweet 10th Anniversary Edition, and Tiffany is a really nicely preped TurboII. So we all wait and discuss the fact that it is colder than everyone expected. After a short wait, which gave us all time to get to know each other, Ashraf shows up with the tickets. He is hugely appologetic about his caravan of 10-20 cars taking so long, but we weren’t that worried. He didn’t plan on the slower traveling speed of a caravan (something to learn for next time). Hey, it gave us more time to BS about the RX7’s.
We all get in, uneventfully, but almost everyone missed the opportunity to take parade laps around the race track. This of course didn’t bother me any, but I guess some of the guys really wanted to do this. We meet inside the track at the semi pre-determined place, park, and admire each others cars. With these sorts of events I enjoy the cars, but I feel like I have seen one of everything there is to see sometime. I enjoy the people, socializing, etc. Guess I am getting old.
After the basic set up of the grill, tents, tables, etc. I get to wander around the paddock area. I always feel at home in a paddock at a race track. This is where I bellong, not worrying about work now.
SCCA races have changed somewhat since I was driving. I think the changes are all for the better. These changes are because of the entrants and the grass roots movement, definately not because of the SCCA national office. I feel like the national office has tried to push entrants into cars like the SCCA Spec Racers and National events, but most of the entrants populate the IT classes and flock in large numbers to the regional events. People do this because they love to race. The overwhelming majority realizes that this is not going to be their stepping stone to replace Michael Schumacher when he retires at Ferrari. There is still room for both, but I have always felt if the focus was on the “regional attitude” that there would be a better selection for finding a path to the pros for the few with the talent and desire.
I walked back and enjoyed some more visiting with the Mazda club guys. They are a great bunch. I met many people, some of which I was aware of from their online presence, others I was not. One of the guys there it turns out works at the same Navy base where I work, but he considers himself a MSCCNC member. Small world sometimes.
I then make it over to the “Gallery” which is a beautiful barn on the grounds at VIR where they have some great vintage sports cars for sale. I have had special interest in Lotus (and other varieties) Super 7’s lately. They had a nice example of what was claimed to be a Lotus, but I did have my doubts as to the authenticity. There was of course the VIR pace car which is a Cobra Daytona Coupe replica. I have seen 3 of the 6 original coupes over the years. I do like them. Also there was a kit/pre-assembled car that uses a fiberglass body and Miata parts. It looked fairly nice and was very reminescent of many of the old sports racers from the early 60’s. There was lots of nice hardware there.
The feature race of the day was a 90 minute enduro for club racers. This was mostly made up of IT cars, and the SCCA Spec Racers. There were Spec RX7’s, IT7’s (don’t ask me the differance), the IT classes (S, A, B, C), and Spec Miata. There were about 90 cars that were taking to the track in this race. It was a huge field. One of the MSCCNC members, John Uftring, was racing in this race with a co-driver. I wandered all around the track and spectated from every point of view. We were a Mazda club people watching and more than half of the entry was either an RX7, Miata, or RX3-4. This was quite a bit of fun for the Mazda club.
The action was constant with that many cars on the track. Our friend John (or his co-driver, Joedy) became the meat in the Miata sandwitch about half way through the race, with enough damage to not be able to continue. The early leader was a second gen RX7. I am not really sure who won each of the classes, but the race was exciting.
Afterwards the club memebers fired up the grill and food was being prepared. Lots of food, lots of talk about apex seals, blow off valves, rotor housings, etc. Great time was had by all. There was a nice little surprise on the drive home. The gas stations on South Boston had lowered their gas prices to $2.19 during the time I was at the track. So I filled the RX7 to the brim, and had a plesant drive home.
Here are my my rather poor quality pictures from the event:
MSCCNC RBQ
Enjoy.
