Fun at Berlin Raceway in Marne

Having gone to Berlin Raceway since I was a wee lad, imagine how thrilled I was to find out that as a member of the media I could take a ride around the track with one of their drivers in the Sobe Adrenalin Rush 2 seater. Hot Damn!

Got to climb in through the window like a real race driver. My only mistake was not wearing my own dang helmet - as you can see this one was a tad small for my melon. We got to wear a flame suite like the big boys, too.

One of the other drivers was nice enough to help me get all strapped in.

The directions were simple enough - they put them on the dash for all passengers to see. As you can imagine, my smile was huge as we zoomed around the track. Oh man, sure did whet my appetite to try driving it myself.

Guess what? I got that wish a few weeks later when the track hosted a bunch of us media types one afternoon to try our hands at driving. This time I wore my own helmet. They took us around the track a couple of times in a pace car to give us an idea of the line we should take as we went around. That circle track stuff looks easy, doesn't it? Yeah buddy, but give it a try. There were more than one who stalled in the pits because the clutch isn't nice and friendly like a street car. I had a freakin' blast. My best time was good for third on the day (the guy with the fastest time had driven at Berlin AND at the MIS Speedway before). I made it around in 22.49 seconds - won't tell you what time it takes the real racers can complete a lap!

Here I am just before jumping through the window for some serious fun. Berlin Raceway made my day............nah, it was better than that 'cuz I still smile just thinking about it.