Gymkhana Final at Meihan Sports Land

Earlier last month I went out to Meihan Sports Land to catch the finals of the All Japan Gymkhana series.  I saw the application for the media pass but have always had full access at this track in the past so I thought nothing of it.  Big mistake.  After arriving and paying too much ($30) to get in I found out that I was only had access to the gallery.  Which sucks.  There were hundreds of cars there.  The whole cart track was used up for private pit use.  The whole parking area of the main track was used for pits.  And, I couldn't get close enough to see a damn thing.  Boo.  So I sat back, and relaxed and watched a bit while practicing different photo techniques with less than impressive results.

While there were A LOT of different cars there this day, the EVOs are the choice for winning at these races-

This little guy about to head out was incredibly fast and incredibly loud.  These three were in a class of their own (literally)-

 The cars go from left to right in the back of the course here, come straight towards the camera on the right and have to do a 180 turn past the cones here.  Two line judges and a sensor system ensure they are make it all the way-

My attention span only lasted about an hour or so.  Cars going fast one at a time gets boring pretty fast I find.

I hit the road in my own EVO and toodle (quite fast) around the mountains and country side.  I stopped to check something out and found this unused lawnbowling/croquet court in the middle of nowhere.  You can see elderly people playing this in the countryside but it looks like not even them enjoy it here anymore-