Rev It Up Weekend

Promoted as the world’s largest performance driving school and national championship, it is really just a giant advertisement for Mazda cars and the best excuse to burn rubber on a Sunday afternoon. A task Karen and I are glad to oblige.

We started the day with test drives on several tracks designed to promote better driving skills. Not switching lanes or stopping at red lights mind you, but making turns and swerving through cones at high speeds. Skills that I’m good at normally, and when put behind the wheel of a car I can trash, I excel at.

Spinning, swerving, and turning it, it was great, if quick fun. The tracks were short and the lines long, reminding me of the hours long waits for thirty-minute rides in amusement parks of my youth. Then again, ya don’t get to squeal tires through hairpin turns at Disney World.

After testing our new skills, we put them to good use on the competition track. Or at least we tried, as by the time we had our runs, at 3pm on a hot afternoon, the track was slick with melted rubber and tiers soft from the heat. Yes, that is my official excuse why it took me 35 seconds to get around the course.

Then again, I don’t race the clock well. I really need a good reference point, like another racer, to get my game on. Call me Seabiscuit if you want, but once we were on the go-kart track, it was a much different story.

From the green flag to the checkered flag, there was only one leader. There was only one dominator, passing through traffic like a knife through butter. The only real race was for second, or first of the losers, as yours truly won handily and took home the winning shirt.

So next time you find yourself in my passenger seat, and I’m slicing through DC traffic, rest assured that I know what I am doing. I’ve been to class and proven my skills, thanks to Mazda’s Rev It Up Weekend.