Words by Tim Wong

This is my second visit to the annual Miatas at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and this time I brought the whole Timscribbles team up with me. Last year when I went up, the event was earlier in the year which had more likeliness for rain and it did rain…a lot. Usually, I’m pretty gung-ho about shooting in the rain because nothing is going to stop me from getting shots. The Canon 5D Mark II was my work horse then and still is today due to its sturdy build and weather resistance, but even though I’ve shot in heavy rain many times before, it didn’t work out so well last year. I ended up having to replace most of the electronic elements and interface. This year I came prepare in case of rain, but no rain and instead we had a heavy dose of sun. I’d actually prefer the rain or at least some overcast since shooting was a pain in the harsh lighting.

The attendance of Miatas this year was just as strong as last year with an endless field of MX5s from every generation running around all day.

When we first arrived at the track Saturday morning, it was late morning so we walked around the paddock checking out the cars. A couple of the shop cars were out on display, but it wasn’t anything I haven’t seen before with a few execeptions. The usual shops out there like Flyin’ Miata, Blackbird Fabworx, and Goodwin Racing.

Garage Woolery’s Pit Crew Miata

I also had a bunch of our latest stickers on hand for some of our supporters. If you missed our Facebook giveaway for stickers, we’ll probably doing another soon.

Tom Matano, designer of the NA and NB Miatas, was also going around signing items for fans like last year. I guess he was getting tired and missed a letter here.

In Part Two, we’ll catch some of the track action around Laguna Seca including the legendary corkscrew turn.