I started my journey from Hopkins, Minnesota, The car was all loaded up and ready to roll, I just needed to top off the tank before I made my way to southwest Iowa for our private testing day at Raceway Park of the Midlands.
Ahead of me I had a 250 mile drive to meet up with my wife and kids who had left earlier in the day. With only one quick bathroom brake I drove straight through to Le Mars, Iowa.
Unsure on what cell phone reception would be like I had a printed map with directions.
Crossing the state border into Iowa!
After the 250 mile drive to Le Mars I topped off the tanks and met up with the rest of my family to make it the rest of the way to RPM.
Another 140 miles later and we finally made it to Raceway Park of the Midlands / I29 Dragway for our private track day.
We setup camp next to the drag strip ( I29 Dragway) had some food and made tea over our camp stove, Morning greeted us with a beautiful sunrise, and cooler temperatures.
We moved over to the pits area and I fully uploaded my Miata, I was able to cram a lot in there. Two wheels, chairs, and easy up, tools, extra parts, my backpack a cooler and my skateboard!
TRACK TIME!! After getting all setup and having a quick drivers meeting with the track staff they let us loose! This was a new track for most of us, it took a few laps to get our lines down and start picking up pace. The track has two longer straight aways; it was cool to be able to stretch its legs on a larger track than I normally drive.
On the track we could only have two cars out at a time. So we sent two cars out staggered and ran for 20 minuet sessions around the 2.2 mile track. I put on more miles on the track than I had ever imagined! I clocked almost 100 miles on track through out the day!
The track did have some challenging corners, Corner three and 5/6 where difficult to find a smooth and fast line through them, by the second session I was starting to get a little faster and was working on my braking zones.
The track day was overall amazing, and it was hot, in the 90's! After we were all packed up for the day, we drove across the border into Nebraska to stay in a hotel for the night before the long drive back!
All packed up in the Miata, and my wife / kids in the Jeep we started our 350 mile drive back home!
A few stops and a few hundred miles later we made it home, it was a great adventure, a great time racing in my car!
Below is a slideshow of more photos
Also see the photos on Facebook