It was a long drive from Chicago to the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania. I had guessed at 650 miles but it turned out to be more like 725 or so. Plus, just as you cross the state line, there is a big sign that says "Pennsylvania Speed Limit is STILL 55 MPH". I guess they're proud of that or something...
There was a reception on Thursday night, 14 May 1994, which I missed much of due to myunderestimate of the distance. I got there just as the meeting itself was breaking up. Toyota had supplied a buffet (even with sufficient selection for a vegetarian like myself) complete with beer and wine. Having skipped dinner to save time, I greatly appreciated this. I met several MR2 owners there, and we talked with Richard Rodriguez from TRD (if you call TRD with an MR2 question, ask to speak to him) and Juan Fangio II.
Friday morning, it was off to Pocono Speedway. Although on the drive in I had seen only one other MR2, it was nice to see about 4 MR2s in just 7 miles. No big surprise about that, though. When we got to the speedway, and found the right entrance, it was time to clean the cars up a bit and get them ready for the show & shine event. It was unfortunately rather cold and windy. Toyota supplied ample food and hot drinks for breakfast which was again much appreciated.
The show & shine was judged by the MR2 members selecting the best looking MkI and MkII cars there. There were 53 cars altogether, so it was very difficult to select only one that was "best". I didn't see any car that wouldn't qualify as excellent.
After that, there were several speakers from various venues: Sandy Lobenstein from TMS Product Planning (the rarest MR2 around is '91 Turbo, Yellow, non-T-top. There was only one sold at retail), Chris Lore from C.A.T Technical Training, Richard Rodriguez from TRD, Clay Green from Yokohama Tires, Juan Fangio II, and Dane Pitarresi from Pitarresi Driving School. One significant pronouncement was that there will be a 1995 MR2. The car will survive only on a year-to-year basis, so 1996 is unknown. They did word it kind of oddly, though, something like If you want to buy a new MR2 in 1995 it will be available. It was joked by club members, that it will be a leftover 1994, and this was not really denied by Toyota, but they certainly gave the impression that they intended to make new 1995 MR2s. Also, Dane Pitarresi remarked that they use MR2s in their driving school, with about 350-400 racetrack miles per week on them. They haven't had any major problems with the 20 or so MR2s that they use. It seems to be a pretty solidly put together car.
Next, we went to an autocross set up on the southeast infield course. We split into two groups and each ran on two courses. Each group ran one of the courses before lunch and the other after lunch. The courses consisted of a few pairs of offset gates at various places along the infield course, and a slalom along the straights. Times were about 45-50 seconds or so.
After that, Juan Fangio, Dane Pitarresi, and another driver who I cannot remember offhand, took various passengers out on the full infield circuit for "mock races". This consisted of a couple of hot laps around the course in Toyota supplied MR2s ('94 Turbos with about 5K miles each). They were really beating on the cars, drifting through corners, smoking the brakes, etc., in general, just having a lot of fun. Juan took out a Supra turbo after a couple of runs and it did appear to be faster than the MR2s, but not by very much.
Then, it was our turn to drive the course. This was done by putting pace cars spaced out between the club members' cars. This severely limited the speed. Fortunately, I was at the end of the line, so I got to hold back a lot until the car at the front of the line was about to catch me and then get a good run in to catch up with the rest of the pack.
After the first session of this, a deal was worked out with the track officials so that we would get out onto the big oval. There are actually three infield courses, and the groups that were using the other two were off the track, so they let us use the entire track. It's a 2.5 mile triangular oval. We were paced again, but at a much higher speed (still, not close to the limit). We did go down pit lane instead of the front straight, but cutting to the outside after pit exit you could get a good feel for the line going into the highest banked turn (turn 1), running down the banking to apex the turn, then drifting back up on exit for a good run down long pond straight. I did hit about 115 before I had to slow down for the car in front of me, so it was a fair taste of speed.
That was about it for the MR2 club. There were prizes for the show & shine and the autocross. The show & shine winners for MkI and MkII each got a front end mask from Toyota, and the overall winner got a trophy. The autocross MkI and MkII winners got a short-shift kit from TRD (I was the MkII winner!) and the overall winner got a set of Yokohama tires. Also, there were T-shirts from TRD, and everyone got a package of Toyota products, books from Yokohama about tire fitments and suspension tuning, and a Toyota poster signed by Juan Fangio. Overall, it was very much worth the $75 enrollment fee.
On Saturday, some of the local MR2 owners went on a drive out in the Pennsylvania countryside to a restaurant for lunch. I went back to the speedway for one day with Performance Drivers Association. This day we were running the north course, which is a 1.5 mile course running backwards through NASCAR turn 3, along the short straight, then through the infield and back to turn 3. We divided into three run groups, group 1 for the hot shots, group 2 for intermediate, and group 3 for novices. I put myself into group 2. Group 1 had some really nice cars, a couple of formula fords, race prepped Ferrari and Corvette, and even a Pantera. We ran for 1/2 hour for each group non-stop throughout the day. I got four sessions in and could have gotten a fifth if I had had enough gas. A full tank lasts about 2 hours if you're pushing the car! I thought that it was just that the gas was sloshed away from the sensor, but after stopping it never went back up! Still, it was the most fun per gallon I've had with the car.
I ended the weekend with a drive back Saturday night, stopping for a few hours sleep, then arriving back in the Chicago area for an autocross Sunday morning. It was a rather full weekend.
marcus hall '94 MR2T - Solar Yellow!
