florida native flowers

Due to a DNF in race 1 I had to start last in race 2. during this short race I made it from last to 6th. I was eventually catching 6th towards the end of the race but traffic held me up so much that catching him wasn't realistic. In the beginning of the race I was driving very cautious to make sure the new transmission was working right and to keep my car in one piece. It was a fun race.

I was testing my father's BMW E36 to get it ready for his arrival to race, along with getting his new AIM camera system functional, you can see we still had some adjustments to make on the settings.

The Hutchison Island Race Track is small, bumpy and very fun to drive. The test went well, and I was able to set a benchmark time for him of 1:24.7 to chase for the weekend.

The fast laps come late in the session due to traffic.

Spoiler alert - We get 2nd place in the 'European cars that aren't Porsche class'. :)

Spec Miata race 1 of the Turkey Trot Weekend. Qualified 8th out of almost 60 cars - then ran 7th most of the race until I got passed on the last lap. Great driving by Gary Frierson who snuck past me on the last lap and helped push me away from the pack. The old 1.6 hung in there and did better than expected. Thanks to Autotechnik in Cape Coral for the tuning, radiator, and fuel pressure regulator, it really helped pump some life in the old girl!

Spec Miata Fun at the CFR's Turkey Trot race - I qualified 7th and ran 6th through the first half of the race, but a double yellow and bad restart pushed me back to 11th. Finally hung in there and clawed my way back to 8th with a little luck. I was very happy with the result considering how old and weak the car is. Fun times as always in SM!

This race was on very old 13 heat cycle tires, so I was very happy with the result. The 1.6 SM is good at this track and we had some good battles. All of the 2nd gen SM's were on new tires, so the two 1.6's on old tires had a fight on our hands.

CFR's Turkey Trot Spec Miata race with accident on lap 1. I Started 15th and fell back to 50 something (dead last) after the accident, then climbed back to 20th. The video makes me realize how many little mistakes I had during my drive, I need to drive more often to keep the rust off.

Here is the second part of the 90 minute enduro.

The best part to watch is at 21:25 where I get a nice run on the Civic and push him along the front straight, then overdrive the infield because my tires are old and greasy.

The Go Pro only films in 33 minute segments for some reason and the first part of the enduro is pretty boring. Here you will see a nice battle between my friends in their ITA Civic and SM, and of course a Spec Racer Ford that should have left us alone and let us race, but kept getting in the way. I eventually won the race, which was nice. You'll also see speeds close to 140mph when we are bump drafting...which isn't bad for Miata's and Civics. Enjoy!

I entered the car in the enduro in ITA rather than Spec Miata, so I was able to take 25lbs out of the car. The whole video is pretty good, with some nice passes, some off road action, and a nice mix of cars. We ended up 4th in class and 14th overall which is a nice gain from starting 22nd overall and 5th in class. I'm pretty happy with the results. Miata's are always fun! I just wish the camera was a little lower so you can see further out of the windshield.

Here is a video of Sebring Short Course, where I started 3rd and finished 5th. The car ran well in the beginning of the race, but then the left front caliper began to stick and slow the car slightly. It was a fun (hot) race and I'm still pretty happy with the result.

This was the first race of the weekend, I qualified the car 5th in class and had a nice start to end up running 4th. I was pleased to be close to the front running 99 SM's then unfortunately my 10 year old transmission died. The tranny served us well for a decade of racing and track days, but all good things come to an end. It ended up the pressure plate was the wrong diameter by a very small amount which over time weakened the release bearing.

This is the 3rd race of the weekend where I started 6th and finished 4th. The battle for 4th was good right to the end of the race. I finally pass the 3rd place car at the 25:00 minute mark then the Sony Bloggie cuts the film as it only films at 30 minutes max. At 11:19 you can see the power difference between a Nationally Competitive SM and my little car. It's impossible to compete for podiums in small races or even a top ten finish at big races. It's still a ton of fun though! Thanks for watching!