Motoring Challenge

The Augusta Coffee and Cars has had several homes in its 4 year history. They outgrew the first one, a shopping center parking lot, after about a year and a half. The second, another shopping center parking lot made it less than a year. The third was a county convention center and while they still had more than enough room, after about a year they wanted a chunk of change to continue using the place. The current home is a local Harley Davidson dealer and the huge grass lot next door that belongs to church.

This month was the 4th Anniversary of the event and for the second time the folks at the Carolina Dragway have opened their doors to Coffee and Cars and the crowds was huge. There is plenty of parking, think 8-10 rows deep and a quarter mile long, but the big draw is of course the two long straight lanes that you can test your car and nerves on for a mere $20. This is a bargain because for your money you can run as many times as you can fit it in, getting there early helps as it is first, come first serve. There was a very eclectic mix of cars, from a brand new Acura NSX to a front bumperless 90’s Honda Civic, to the usual Corvettes, Mustangs, Camaros and Cadillac CTSVs. Plus plenty of two wheeled sport bikes.

We stuck around for the first three hours before having enough of looking at static cars and the folks taking their cars out and drag racing a 1/4 mile. We also weren’t having much luck with our ulterior motive for attending, Motoring Challenge points. In amongst the hundreds of cars we found two vehicles that had flames, worth 3 points, but both were very subtle and there was no way to get a good photograph of them because of where they were parked. We did manage to get the last two vanity plates we needed, but we had our best luck when we went to leave.

Waiting to cross the road to the exit, what should drive right in front of us, but a motorcycle with a sidecar on its way in, that’s five points! I had to wait for a couple more entering cars, before I could get going on pursuing the target. We lost him for a second, but managed to see him drive right into area up front cordoned off for motorcycles and the vendor tents. Drat. We tried circling around looking to see if we could get somewhere where the motorcycle might be visible in the background, with no luck. After careful negotiations between us, we decided to leave and catch that photo at another Coffee and Cars as there were going to be 9 more this year.

Once more we headed towards the exit. The way out led right by a sign for the racetrack. So even though we plan on passing right by the Darlington NASCAR track later this month, we stopped for the one point as insurance. As we passed through the exit gate we both simultaneously noticed a car back inside that was covered in flames with an open parking spot next to it. I pulled a u-turn and entered the gates to the dragstrip once more.

Since we were parked, we decided to walk over to the motorcycle/vendor area and see if we can find the motorcycle with sidecar’s owner and ask if we can get together and take a picture. There was no one standing right next to the bike, so we were out of luck. And because neither one of us got a good look at the driver there was no way to track him down in the crowd, so we opted for Plan B. Since our target was the last in a long line, if we could find someone in charge, we’d ask for permission to move an orange cone and drive over next to it to take the photo. Donna went off in search of someone official and didn’t have much luck. We were about to leave when I said let me ask in here. There was a back door open on one of the concession stands, so I asked a woman inside. She asked someone else where so and so was. No one knew, so they made a front-line decision, whether they were authorized to or not, and told us go ahead. So I ran back and got the car and drove in like I belonged there, so we could get our five point Motorcycle with a Sidecar picture.

What looked like a measly 2 point day turned into a dozen pointer. Not bad.