Screeching tires, revving engines, whoops and cheers, and grins from ear to ear. That was the M2C2 Driving School at Lowe's Motor Speedway. We had a fantastic time!
I want to thank Mike Renner, Matt Mullins, and Bill Conger for their excellent instruction. Mike and his team did a great job. Everyone left with a smile on their face. I want to thank Matt for a thrilling ride and Todd Schelling for loaning me his MINI for a few laps. It was better than a roller coaster ride.
I also want to thank Chris Thompson and Coke for supplying us with the Dasani bottled water. It was hot on the track, and the water was essential. Thanks, Chris! Thanks to Steve Treece, our local Zaino distributor, for the door prizes for our dinner. Thanks to Linda Gresham and Century MINI for providing us with door prizes and the cool keychains, as well. Thanks to Dustin at Jillians for allowing us to park some MINI's on their patio while we had our dinner.
And to the board members... Thanks so much to Bill Lawrence (Willy), our former treasurer, for getting this whole thing started and for helping to the end. Thanks to George "Mr. Smooth" Kail
, our president, for all that he did...for setting up the hotel deals, working with the speedway, the restaurant, and making literally hundreds of phone calls, and who could forget George getting the speedway to let us make a few laps around the big track. What a thrill. George, I'm still waiting on those lessons on how to "work that mojo".
Thanks to Molly and Carl Rogers for getting us the helmets to use for the driving school.
Many thanks to Sarah Chapman. Without her help, we would have still been trying to line up for the first run at the event. She did a fantastic job organizing the drivers. I think after watching Sarah, she could even herd cats.
Finally, thanks to all of the M2C2 members for joining us. Your participation and your friendship made the day one I will long remember. It was great getting to meet new members and seeing familiar faces. This was our club's first driving school and the first time I had ever been to a track or speedway, so we were learning as we went along. I'd like to hear of any suggestions you have for improving our next driving school event. Sarah has already told me at the next event, she gets the bullhorn and I get the walkie talkie. That works for me!
We had a photographer, Steve Starnes, come to the event and take some pictures of you folks lapping the track. He already has our pics loaded on his website, including when we were on the main Lowe's Motor Speedway racetrack. You can see them here:
http://www.adrenalinesportsphotograp...lowes92103.htm
Steve has these available as prints, CD images, etc. If you'd like to purchase one, you can do that through his website.
Speaking of photography, the MINIs lapping the main track at Lowe's were apparently on one of the live feeds of a news or weather channel, because my wife was attending a family gathering, and Libby saw us on TV. How 'bout that.
The request I heard most often at the event was "When is the next driving school!". Well, we're working on that. It will likely be Spring of 2004. We'll keep you posted.
You guys and gals are the best, and I look forward to seeing you again, soon!
See ya,
John Stines
Treasurer, M2C2.Org
Contact me at:
john@m2c2.org