The Miata morning crew lines up to caravan to the MineralRing.

It was certainly a nice morning to drag out of bed at 5 o'clock. The thermometer read 81 and there was a gentle breeze blowing through the neighborhood as I pulled out of the garage at 5:30.

And then, the sun came up. It could certainly have been hotter, but we've been spoiled by tamer weather this year. The 2nd North Texas S2000 Owner's Club autocross for this season drew out 16 Miata pilots driving 13 cars. A total of 54 drivers competed in the event, with top time of day going to clovis in his white '00 S2000.

Ahhh... nothing like the road to Mineral Wells on a warm Sunday morning!

Seven of our die-hard pilots showed up for breakfast at McDonald's before the event, although I thought we were going to have to buy the management a new clock before they'd open the door and let us in.

We were all impressed with the cleanup work Greg Lee has been doing in Mineral Wells. During our walk through, there was a lot less gravel around than we're used to out there. A few sections of course ran awfully close to the mounds of grass, dirt and small ecosystems -- as a couple S2000 drivers discovered. We hope Egothreat has gotten all the dirt out of her car.

During the morning runs, temperatures snuck up on me and I got the Azenises too hot. Looking at the results, the fast guys other than the ever-consistent leadfootjon scored better times in the afternoon - at least those that ran in the afternoon...

With collegeboy along for ballast, JRW threads his Miata through the slalom.

The biggest surprise in the results this time around was the top of the R tire battle as altiain snuck by with only .003 seconds to spare over Kestrel. JRW claimed the 3rd place trophy from another seven tenths behind. After an impressive showing at the last SCCA event, POS Racing showed up 2.5 seconds out of the trophies. Horsepower makes a lot more difference heading uphill into the wind in 3rd gear...

Kestrel does his best to fly past altiain. We hope he can sneak one in before those V710's show up again.

In the street tire group, no surprises as leadfootjon finishes just 1.5 seconds behind the R leader, but joe.miata turns up the heat, finishing just 2 tenths behind. tailchaser pulls up his usual also-ran just under a full second behind 1st place. After some battles with the spin pedal on his FM III Miata, Flyin96M hangs on for 4th ahead of sammm in his '92.

We're all turning up the heat on the S2000 drivers this year. The top 2 street tire Miatas beat all but the fastest S2000 on street tires. And the top 3 street tire Miatas can say "at least I didn't get beaten by a girl."

Until next time!

That hamster may have been under a lot of stress coming up the hill into a head-wind, but the POS Racer was really flying in the last section of the course.