We got to spend a few quality days among a couple hundred like-minded Miata enthusiasts, and we even got to get a little autocross practice in along the way. Even better, at this low-key event held in the infield of Myrtle Beach Speedway, we got a second-place finish out of the deal.

Last year we did the same thing. MAMBIII included a track day, allowing participants access to the 6/10 mile NASCAR oval as well as the infield autocross. At the time, we hadn't done any autocrossing in about 20 years, remembering darn near nothing about that experience. But at MAMBIII, we ran it and wound up liking it, leading to the obsession that you came here to read about.

Last year's course was a simple affair, with competitive times running somewhere around 26 seconds. This time around, the course was far better laid out and far more challenging. Nobody was running stopwatches during the practice runs, so we weren't sure what we should be shooting for.

Times weren't that important as the course needed lots of walking and driving just to make sure we didn't go off course. And even if we got the layout right, care was needed to stay clean as there were a couple of tricky bits. The course wound down to a hairpin turn, then wound its way to a sweeper that tightened up to rejoin the course and you ended up going back the way you came, including the hairpin again.

After a few practice runs, I was really missing power steering. Captain Slow can sure corner, but there's no throwing it into a corner with a flick of the wrist and letting it run out effortlessly. No, it was such a sandy surface that I wound up cranking on the wheel under braking and waiting for the front wheels to catch before even thinking about getting back into the power. Other parts of the course were also tight, low-speed turns, so much so that some drivers were downshifting to first gear. I'm not wired for shifting into first while moving, so for my runs I got to second gear and left it there. That's just one less thing to screw up and complicate things, so I avoided it.

After a couple of off-course runs in practice, I finally figured out where I was supposed to be and worked on speed. Being smooth was going to be important, and not overcooking braking zones. Putting power down was not going to be important, though, thanks to my having the smallest engine possible.

We started the timed runs and after the track manager borrowed a Mazdaspeed MX-5 and laid down a supposed 47.47-second time, I was surprised to get a 47.78 on my first time around. This put me in the lead, but it was the very early going. And while I couldn't match that time in the next two runs, I was pretty confident that I was moving on to the next round.

I think the first cut eliminated everyone who couldn't run quicker than a 49-second lap, which put many drivers, including Kate in her MSM, on the sidelines. We were down to six drivers or so, and we were only given one shot to improve further. I did so, barely well enough to make the next cut, and before we knew it, we were down to the final three.

All our previous runs were thrown out at this time. We agreed that we would run twice each, and the best of those two would be our run of record for the trophy round. If anyone hit a cone or went off course, he was eliminated for the rest of the day.

First up was me, since I had the oldest car. Knowing I had to stay clean, I puttered through the course with a 49-second lap. Next up was a young kid in a box stock 2001 SE, who had been fast all day, and he did not disappoint by getting down into the 45s. Finally was Oleg the Russki in his NC. He had also been fast all day, but on his first pass of the final run he got a cone and that left him third no matter what any of us other two drivers did. I was given my second run to take another shot at taking over the lead, even though I hadn't been able to run within a second and a half of the kid all day. I wound up running my best time of the day with a 47.6, but it wasn't enough.

Second place was just awesome to get. Last year I was fourth and I think I fluked into it, while this time out I set out hoping to be a contender. My only goal, especially after plastering my number magnetics and other stickers all over the car, was not to look like I didn't know what I was doing, and I accomplished that and quite a bit more.

Last year I left the MAMB autocross thinking "Hey, I can get into this." This year I left it thinking "Hey, I might be halfway decent at this." We'll see if that's true as we get into the serious part of the Washington DC autocross season.

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