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Savannah - 1991 National - Group Photo Small

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that you could run on the track both Friday and Saturday. I only showed you Friday’s results. That is because there were no Saturday results for me.

Back in 1991 the Miata wasn’t the center of our universe, that didn’t happen for a few more years. We were still into bicycling pretty big and the Miata was just a really sporty means to transport our bikes. So on Saturday morning, instead of driving around Roebling Road Raceway, Donna and I met up with the Coastal Bicycle Touring Club and rode 50 miles with a half dozen or so folks. We met at a Park N Ride lot off I-95 northwest of Savannah and rode to Bluffton to eat lunch at the famous Squat & Gobble, then riding back along the same route.

When the 1991 Miata National Event was through on Sunday morning the last thing we did was drive to a closed shopping center where a professional photographer got up on the roof and took a group portrait. I don’t think every car that was at the event made the trip to get photographed, but a vast majority did. I count 100 cars in the picture above. The first row consists of one car of each color the Miata was available in then (they had just added silver and British Racing Green in 1991.) We got to the photo spot fairly early, but they took one look at our car and told us we would have to wait until everyone else arrived before we would be lined up. They didn’t want us to spoil the Miata aesthetic.

Our crime was a bike rack on the back of the car with two bicycles sticking up. Click on the top photo and it will enlarge, where if you look at the last row where the round looking tree is, there is a gap because no one wanted to park right behind our blue car…

Brian Bogardus: Race Car Driver

Roebling Road Lap Times

Our trip to Roebling Road Raceway brought back some memories. We have watched John race here a couple of times in recent years, but we had been here once before a long time ago for a different reason.

In the early days of Miatadom there was a national umbrella club that was the central point of information for the rest of the clubs around the country. The Miata Club of America, along with Mazda’s help, put out a glossy magazine quarterly that went to every member and they planned and put on events around the country at different places with the help of local clubs. The 1991 National Event was in Savannah and we decided to go.

There were lots things to do, poker run, scenic drives, a riverboat cruise, etc, but the big draw was track time at Roebling Road. Each person who wanted would get one session on the track both Friday & Saturday morning. I don’t recall how many laps we got, but my guess is five, a warm up lap, 3 at “speed” and a cool down lap. Your best time of the two days would be counted towards a small bit of prize money or trophy or something. To help keep the speed down some and to keep folks from running right off Turn #1, they placed a cone lined chicane* near the end of the loooong straightaway.

*In the intervening 2 decades they’ve built one into the track.

All you needed by way of safety equipment was a Snell approved helmet and I ate up a significant portion of the Miata’s trunk space on the trip with a borrowed coworker’s motorcycle helmet. Tech inspection consisted of making sure your lug nuts were tightened to the proper specifications. They also opened the hood and looked underneath to check for modifications because they were going to handicap the cars based on any improvements made.

As you can see in the image above, my bone stock 1990 Miata lapped the 2.02 mile track in 2 minutes and 15.19 seconds. John’s best lap time in his race prepped 1990 Miata last Saturday morning was 1 minute and 24.9 seconds. That means if we left the starting line at the same time, he would pass me just I started on lap #3 while he was beginning his 4th lap.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1218

131,000 Letters

Oliver - 30449

On the way back home from today’s road trip the Miata passed through the 131,000 mile mark. Not too long after that we passed by this cute little Post Office in Oliver, GA and just had to stop.

The Emperor visited the racetrack today, but purely as a spectator. We drove down to watch fellow MMC member John Haff of POS Racing ply his trade at Roebling Road Raceway. There were two other cars with us for the breakfast run to the Lake Restaurant in Waynesboro, one continued on with us and one went home. We were met at the track an hour or so later by another member who didn’t want to get up that early for breakfast. Or anything else for that matter.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1217

White Paint

White Paint

Last night the ceiling and tonight the door/window trim got one coat of white paint. For the ceiling that might be all it takes, but the trim is going to need at least one more coat, probably two.

The transition from yellow wall to white ceiling looks dirty, cabinet crown molding to ceiling it looks fine. I’m pretty sure it is just shadow, but Donna is not happy, so we are exploring options. First thought is to paint a 1″ section of the ceiling with the same yellow as the wall. If that looks weird we will go with an idea from cabinet guy, paint the ceiling a lighter shade of the wall color.

We have a busy day tomorrow, but I hope to finish the painting on Sunday, even if it means one coat in the morning and a second coat that night.

Free Iced Coffee Day

We took advantage of the nice weather to ride the tandem to work today. The kids are all off of school this week because of that little golf tournament in Augusta that is named in honor of the car club we’re in. This made the ride in and the ride back at lunchtime doubly nice as the traffic was very, very light

I got lucky and got a free small iced coffee late this afternoon, but only because Donna wanted to get something cold after our yearly eye exam.

One of our local DD shares the same building with a Baskin Robbins. We went in because we had a coupon that was going to expire soon for a Buy One Get One 50% Off ice cream cone. While standing there waiting to get our cone Donna asked the fellow behind the counter, “Has it been busy today because it is Spring Break?” He replied, “Its been busy, but probably more because it is Free Iced Coffee Day.” Then he offered us one. I accepted.

Disappearing Dumpster

No Dumpster

For the first time in 61 days the Emperor could park in his Throne Room. It was supposed to be gone last Friday, and then it was supposed to be yesterday, so quite frankly we were surprised to find it actually gone when we pulled into the driveway after work today. Even though pine pollen season isn’t exactly over, the Miata got a washing before being driven into the garage.

We have been driving the Miata for the last couple weeks, so the Sonata has been just parked under the awning gathering a layer of pine pollen. To keep both siblings happy, I was going to wash the Purple Whale too, but dinner was nearly ready, so Donna insisted that I put the wash bucket away and after eating we’d run the Sonata through Lu Lu’s, a local car wash. It felt like cheating and it cost $10, but man that was easy.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1215

March/April Madness

In our office pool I am comfortably in 17th place out of 26 with only a chance of dropping to 18th place if Michigan Wolverines win tonight’s game. None the less I am rooting for a Michigan win. My boss has them as his champion pick and if they win he wins the pool and promises to buy 2 dozen doughnuts and bring them to work.

Watched the season opener of Mad Men this evening and I felt like I needed the Cliff Notes to follow all the illusions and symbolism. Is it me or was it easier to watch this show when in the first few seasons we were just watching to see what was going on with these people? Now that I became a fan and started reading web site reviews and discussions of plot and story and what not, I think I see hidden meanings everywhere so that I must go out and read more about the show to see if I was right or wrong and what else I might have missed.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1213