Well -- I rented out my ITA Mazda Protege to a friend for an HPDE at VIR. He is a fairly good track driver, but only HPDEs, not wheel to wheel. Anyway, he did really well with the car... until... late in the day of day 2. He went through South Bend and the car stepped out a little, he tried to catch it and wasn't quite quick enough. Next thing he knew he was hitting the tire wall (track left) at more than 60mph (according to the datalogger). oops.

Luckily, aside from some soreness, he is alright. Also, he was very quick to write me a check - buying the car from me.

Here is a pic of the car (after being towed back to his house and ready to be picked apart).




I obviously quickly decided I was going to buy a new car... so the search began. Below is what I ended up with. It is a 2002 Mazda Protege Mp3 -SSC- car. Yeah, I know... they didn't make Mp3's in 2002. This one is a full conversion allowed in the GCR. So, this is the car you will see me driving around the southeast this year. See you at the track!