I tried to post here a few months back, but was unable to. Please refer to the following other forums posts if you need some background info. on the event. Long story short MAZDA is sponsoring the Saturday trackside tent and catered food

http://www.moccforums.com/forums/index.php?topic=8442.0
&
http://www.mazdaoca.org/community/sh...=2356#post2356
&
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?p=3208366
&
http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.ph...31#post8305431


Good News:
Per the updated Attendee List I have 25 tickets sold with another 8 pending payment. So that is 33 and close enough that I can say that our corral will happen, so it is a GO!

Better News:
Elliot Shev(our Mazda Advisory Council rep) got Mazda to negotiate a stay of execution for our ticket payment to the track. I have until NEXT FRIDAY, June 27th to get them payment, so that is another week for people to get off the fence That said, I don't think anyone on the fence will have any difficulty jumping off once they read the awesome news below:

[b]NOW, for the AWESOME news::beerchug:
Behind the scenes Elliot Shev has been trying to get Mazda to do something special for us at the track on Saturday. I have been holding back getting everyone's hopes up because in past years we were unable to make anything happen. Well, he JUST confirmed that Mazda is going to fund what I requested(note, just the tent, tables and chairs are going to cost ~$1800)

1. A 30' x 30' trackside tent
2. Four 8' banquet tables
3. Nine 5' dining tables(round) and chairs - enough for up to 81 people

I will be talking with him about this today, so I do not yet know if they will fully fund everything, but as long as they fund the big stuff I can handle hiring a catering company to at least provide a nice lunch and/or breakfast. As I stated, it MIGHT be completely funded(FREE), but if not I would estimate lunch costing $15-20 per person, soda/water included.

A few more reasons to attend:
Elliot will be there in a shiny new 2009 Mazda-6 for everyone to check out. He will also be handing out Mazda goodie bags to all the corral attendees on Saturday(which he does every year), so that coupled with the fact that we FINALLY have an awesome place to get some shade, hang out, socialize, and eat, I think everyone would happily shell out another $15-$20, am I right?

The ONLY variable is WHERE the events people will put our tent. I am fairly certain there will be plenty of room to have it where our corral is located - about 125' from the apex of turn-5, basically where we watch the cars accelerate out of the turn and head up the hill. However, this is dependent on the number of tickets we buy(to them this is the # of cars). That said, in previous years we had about 35 cars and there was more than enough room for a tent at the track side end of the corral. I am confident the tent will be in the location where it used to be in previous years.

SO, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

 

All, per the Attendee List we now have 36 committed attendees, not counting the two extra tickets that Ron so graciously paid for on TOP of his own ticket . There are still a few pending payment, but given that I just found out that we now have until July 3rd to finalize our corral order we have plenty of time .

That said, if we don't get a large enough group in the corral they might put our tent and corral on the ISLAND, which is better than having NO tent at all, but the inside Turn-5 location is MUCHO GRANDE better, trust me. It is where we have ALWAYS had our corral and we WANT it there.

SO, if you guys want to hang out RIGHT next to the track you NEED to get more people to sign up. I sold 3 more tickets over the weekend, but it was a far cry from what I expected. I assumed people would be ALL over this, but maybe $ is tight this year

In any event, as I have stated previously, if you are within 3 hours driving of Monterey then you should NOT MISS THIS EVENT. I know of more than 14 of the members that are only coming for the Saturday event and are going back home after the races are done. I have driven down to Laguna countless times over the years and I live about 3 hours away, not only that but I have driven down, driven the track for 2+ hours full throttle and then driven back home, all in the same day(and in racing bucket seat with minimal padding and no reclining . I'm no spring chicken anymore so if I can do THAT then all of you can handle coming to the Saturday event.

Let's have a MASSIVE turnout this year. If it is as successful as I hope then I might just do it one better next year :toast:

And for the record, ALL OF THE FOOD AND BEVERAGES WILL BE FREE! Given the small group we should have MORE than enough $ for a nice catered breakfast as well as lunch. For those that remembered when Barbara Beach organized the corral and tent/food - do you remember how much it cost per person? MAZDA did not sponsor us back then so Barbara had to pass the cost onto us and it used to cost $45+ per person...

The bottom line is - we have FULL sponsorship from Mazda for this event - this is the FIRST time ever for the Mazda corral @ the historics and if it is successful we should have no problem securing funding for next year as well.

Thank you,
Mike Hagerla

 

omg lol, good thing there are no kids on this forum, geez