NEWS FLASH! Mehlerville Set to Grow in Population!

So Erica and I went to Asheville this weekend. I originally planned to go this weekend to head to Deals Gap and drive the Tail of the Dragon a.k.a. US 129, an 11 mile stretch of road that has 318 curves.

Fun.

Erica and I stopped in Durham on our way to the mountains and had lunch with my parents, my grandmother and my Uncle Andrew, Aunt Ellen and cousins Dara and Erica who were down from NJ. It was good to see them, even briefly.

We then headed to Asheville and got to Patrick and Brianna's house in Canton just in time for a nice cookout with a bunch of Brianna's family and friends. Again, it was great to see everyone.

Saturday AM Patrick and I got up and headed out in the rainy weather to make the 1.5 hour trek to the Gap. Fortunately, not long after we go there it stopped raining and the road dried up the longer we were there. It was a BLAST! We each had 3 runs on the Dragon. There were tons of Miatas, motorcycles and annoying minivans. Video will follow.















So after our fun at the Gap, Patrick and I headed back to their house. Erica had a nice massage in Waynesville and hung out at a cool coffee shop that Brianna introduced us to last visit. I got changed ASAP and then Erica and I headed to the Biltmore Estate. Patrick gave us some tickets and we went right in. After our tour of the house I spoke to one of the hosts and we were allowed into the Winter Garden, a pretty indoor atrium area just inside the main entrance of the house. Once there I had a little something to ask Erica...

Yes, that's right, the population of Mehlerville will soon be growing. Well, not too too soon. Right now we're thinking October. Next October.

She was quite surprised.

Afterwards we got a little snack and then headed to the winery for tastings.

The next little surprise was to go meet Patrick and Brianna at the restaurant where they had just had dinner so they could give us our stuff. I couldn't exactly pack up our car, as Erica would be asking too many questions. After we ate at the same Thai restaurant we headed to a nice little Bed and Breakfast in Asheville quite close to the Estate.

Alas, now its time to head home to Wilmington. Here are a few more pictures!


























Here's one of us at dinner!














And yes, here's the obligatory ring picture:

Okay, so those videos look like crap. I give up. If you want to see more, come see me. Hehe.

In the mean time, here, check this out:

The videos are coming out squished for some reason. I need to find a new compression method before uploading to YT. Anyway, here's a video of Randy in his R32 and Doug in his Cayman S.

Details to come, in the mean time, here is the first of a few videos of my experience at Rockingham the last weekend in June.

One word: Amazing.

Alright, I've been slack, here are some more photos of the quickly growing Sydney!


The video was from this weekend, so she's 9 weeks old!

Sydney Girl!

Well, with all the baby fever lately, I figured that I should post with our new little girl. She's not human, but its as close as we're gonna get for a while. So, with no further adieu, hereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee's Sydney!


Sydney Ava Leinwand-Mehler to be exact! She's 7 weeks old and weighs 8.5lbs. And, according to Erica, "she's precious!"

2008 Indy at the Park

As things are slowly getting settled in the Hizzle, I took the day Sunday to attend Indy at the Park! The weather ended up being spectacular after a not so hot start of major thunderstorms rolling through the area at around 4 am. Some were scared off by the prospect of more rain, but alas, the weather cleared up and the event was a success.

There was an air show next door at the ILM airport, which made for some interesting distractions.
I had two other cars in my class (C Stock). A 1999 Miata driven by Nick Arnold and a 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata (that's turbocharged for those that don't know) driven by Willie Stallings. Willie normally drives a turbocharged race prep car in another class but the prospect of rain had him driving his "street car" for the second straight event. In Kinston the weather was miserable (cold and wet) and my performance was worse! Willie beat me by two seconds! Two seconds is an eternity in autocross time. Well, this event Willie once again led me after three morning runs by 0.4 seconds. Still a substantial lead. On Willie's first run of the afternoon he increased his lead to 1 full second. I felt doomed. I managed to gain a bit of hope back on my second to last run, a nice clean one that left me only 0.2 seconds behind Willie. Well, on my final run, after some very helpful advice from Mike LaBor (SM2 champ for the day!) I managed to take the first place trophy by 0.1 seconds! It was great. This was my first serious win over someone with experience and my first really good time. It provided some nice drama too, I had many congratulations afterwards.

Below are videos of my best two runs of the day. Sorry for the video quality, its the best I've got at the moment.

Hizzle!

As promised, I am updating more often! However, this will NOT involve cars! Shocking, I know. Instead it involves the new house Erica and I are buying! Woo hooo! It even has a garage where I can keep my Miata and all my racing stuff (it had to involve cars, who am I kidding). We're very excited to move in next weekend and start a (BIG) new chapter in our lives. Here are just a few preliminary shots from this morning during the all-important inspection.

For the VERY few of you who glance at my page once in a awhile, the new AutoX season is almost upon us here in SE NC. I can't wait and hope to be updating my page after almost every event. I also hope at some point in the season to add an in-car video component too. My new camera takes video and I may try using it for this purpose. So stay tuned!