My Mid-Ohio EMCO Gears Class races album

[Chibana]

Yeah, that was me. Were you the one who introduced yourself and then we got sidetracked? I met at least two people there who were on these forums. I'm glad I wore my RCC shirt. I got a few odd looks from people on rx8club.com (at least, it felt that way), but oh well. I wanted to advertise! And it drew the attention of the Pirate Motorsports guys with the two RX-8 cars in the Continental Tire series. At Mid-Ohio they raced the green and black one, but they also have a yellow and black one. The one guy (I wish I had thought to get his name) saw my shirt and said, "Since you're an enthusiast, come on in and I'll show everything!" They were very friendly, and obviously there just to have fun, as the RX-8 simply isn't competitive in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (ST class). The allowed performance part upgrades don't do as much for the RX-8 as for the other cars. It really grinds me to see VW GTIs leaving an RX-8 in the dust on the track when I know that in OEM configuration, the RX-8 would win. He also complained that Mazda hasn't been putting out the support and money for the RX-8. They've been focusing all their efforts on the Mazdaspeed3. Still, I sure enjoyed talking to them and seeing their car on the track.