Pebble Beach - one of my Dad's things to do...

My dad has always been an avid golfer. I remember as a kid he would play several days a week. We'd usually run into him at the local golf club in Singapore (first Warren, then later Sentosa) after his games.

Recently he's been playing more competitively - last year he won the ASEAN senior golfer's tournament in Jakarta. Said he had to wake up at 4am every day for 3 days for this tournament, which is why he wasn't smiling too much even with the trophy in his hands!

Anyway - he was recently in town with 3 of his golf buddies to play some of North America's courses. He tends to do these trips once a year, I remember he was in New Zealand in 2006, and in the South Carolina area a few years before that. This year the itinerary had at least 6 courses in 6 days, and included Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, Bandon Dunes in Oregon, and a few more in Vancouver & near Banff.

My dad eventually said he thought Pebble Beach, Spyglass & Bandon were all a bit overrated, and that he felt the Canadian golf courses were just as much fun to play (and far less expensive!).
But this picture of him at the 18th hole at Pebble Beach just seems to say otherwise... :)

Laguna Seca Raceway, May 2008

It's been some time since I was last at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. But when I received a short notice invite from Trackmasters about a week before the event, I jumped at the opportunity. One of the drawbacks about Laguna though is the extremely strict sound limits - 92db. I elected to have my stock exhaust put back on the car, and was glad I did, as many people ended up working on their cars instead of focusing on driving due to sound violations.

The day started out with a light rain, but fortunately, this cleared up by the 3rd session of the day. I was a bit concerned, as I had Yokohama racing slicks on. Traffic was pretty light - definitely less than 30 cars per session. Quite a variety of interesting cars there, including 2 other Lotus Exiges (no Elises), a lot of Porsches including a 997 GT3RS, a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale, a Audi RS4, a new E92 BMW M3 (600 miles!), a new Mitsubishi Evo X, a Radical SR4 and even a few old NASCAR/Winston cup cars.

This was my first time running with Trackmasters, and they seemed like a pretty good group of guys - had a decent amount of track time - 2 20 minute sessions and 4 25 minute sessions.

My next event is July 19th at Sears Point (Infineon Raceway). Photos ©Carlos Oliveros of extpictures.com