Miatas @ Laguna Seca

Words by Tim Wong

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca(MRLS) has been one of the most notable tracks in all of North America mostly due to the infamous Corkscrew turn. Back in 2009, the Miata was celebrating its 20th year anniversary at MRLS over a two day event. After the success of the first event, the event continued to be a yearly event called Miatas at Laguna Seca. I heard a bit about this event last year, but didn’t really have the time nor the funds for a weekend away, but this year rolled around and I planned several months ahead of time. Laguna Seca Raceway is definitely one of the tracks that any automotive enthusiast should visit at some point. Aside from the all the technical aspects of the corners and what not, the track’s facilities and campus that it is built around is just simply beautiful.

The track hosts some many variations of vehicles from open wheel to karts which really shows the versatility of the track.

First thing on the morning, we were at the track for preparations and driver meetings. I made a couple rounds around the track and snapped some shots of cars getting prepped.

Moss Miatas in the garages

949 Racing Miata

On the other side of the lot, there was also a car show which makes for a nice blend of form and function mentalities in the same venue.

Plenty of vendors were also in attendance to show support and promote products for the common platform throughout the event.

This car was ridiculous. Exhaust pipes going through the inside of the car, homemade roof, and tons of other highly skeptical setups.

When the cars started to make their laps around the track, I walked across pretty much the entire track to the corkscrew.

A good amount of people decided to enjoy the track top down.

Not too long in to the track sessions, it started to rain. Hard. In the past, I have shot through heavy rain with no worries about getting the camera wet because with the nicer cameras, they come whether sealed and pretty resistant to water. Weather sealed doesn’t mean waterproof and this case it definitely didn’t fair as well as I would have thought. Not too long into shooting, the buttons and dials started to act up and eventually stop functioning all together. I quickly retreated back to the garages which was still all the way across the vicinity and by the time I got back, I was soaked through….everything actually. So in the end, I still needed to get my shots in and the only thing worked was the live view and the AUTO mode on my camera.

Everyone else had the same idea: hide in the garages or drive on the track.

As the rain continued to pour, there were other things to keep busty with.

A couple special cars were on display in another garage.

Later in the day, things started to dry up and cars were running stronger.

As the day came to an end, I rolled back to our hotel with a lovely view to change into clothes that were not wet and attempt to dry out my suede shoes with the heater.

Later that evening, there was a banquet with some food and a couple special guests.

Some KINOD guys bringing home trophies awarded from the car show.

Then a picture with Miata creator, Tom Matano.

The morning after, everyone was getting ready to head home.

On the way home, we made a stop at tourist destination: Anderson’s for some Split Pea Soup.