Beneath the buzz of a neon light. (Daily chatter)

[Fit4aking]

The Straightaway Cafe used to be the hot spot for bench racing, story tellin, and getting a jolt of caffeine before hitting the highway.  It sat at the end of the 1/8th mile track, just past the scoring lights, and was always popular on the sweltering summer afternoons and cool fall days of the weekend bracket races.  When the racing bug caught on and Road Atlanta opened up right up the interstate the owners made it an NHRA legal full 1/4 mile and the cafe sat in between the grandstands.   Drag racing never really took off.  There were a few good summers before the local boys moved on to circuit racing and then it settled back into a Friday Night kinda track.  All of the banner space, huge scoring tower, and safer barrier lined lanes were out of place in the working class town but the cafe was always open.

About a year ago the track closed down.  A developer bought the land and smoothed it all out for a self-storage facility with a big fenced in lot to store campers and cars and anything else that needed to be stashed out of sight.  The cafe stayed open, served up diner food and hot coffee, and offered one last stop before hitting I-95 either way out of town.

6 months ago a planned community lost funding and the land was quickly purchased by Montgomery Motorsports, LLC.  Last month it opened for business, on the other side of town.

Things have slowed down a bit since then.  Only a dedicated bunch of folks still pass through.  Sure the odd out-of-towner will wander through if they haven't updated their GPS but along with stealing the customers Montgomery Motorsports Park also went and built a bypass.  The change in landscape took away The Straightaway Cafe's one last advantage, location, location, location.

Pull up a stool, flip over a menu, and find out what's going on in our little town.  Kris will be right with ya.

[TopBoost]

This is gonna be good...

[Fit4aking]

Lets hope so.  I was a bit reserved about opening up shop again but I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.  With Spanky out of the picture I couldn't go and use his old shop name.  Who know's how pissed the buzzard is and the last thing I need is to meet him in court over a silly IP case involving the use of his name. 

Haven't really settled on a shop, or a place to live, or what to do once the story gets rolling but we'll see how it fares.  There's only so many open rooms in a small town and the cast of characters is all wound together so sparks, or fists, could fly at any moment.

Ever heard the adage, "Can't beat 'em, join 'em?"  Hmmm.

[TopBoost]

You and Chet in a Ride-A-Long program?  That could be... terrifying. 

[Fit4aking]

In hopes of moving along the storyline I decided that it was time to revisit the Chet-mobile.  It needs to be big, and menacing, and a real missile build.  I don't know what that means at this point but I will be working it out.

Stock, then FSRA SS, then missile build (B500?), then full race (Nascar swap?)

Either way the first challenge for Fit will be to stack that King Cobra up against whatever awaits him at the Complex.

Next time I'm able to I think the Gleaming Black Chevelle I bought last night will need a shakedown run.  Eventually I'll put it in the hands of either Williams or Taylor, the two most aggressive AI so far, and see how many good pics I can get.

[Blooze]

The Straightaway Cafe used to be the hot spot for bench racing...

You paint a good picture Fit... my kind of place.

How late do you serve breakfast? 

$

[Fit4aking]

Thanks Blooze.  The coffee is always fresh and we never stop serving pancakes.  Don't know if the pecan pie is as fresh as it could be but I'll talk to the manger about that.

[DirtDriver]

That was Fit's Javelin in the back, alright. I can't believe he has it locked up behind a gate!

Didn't see anything "yellow-red-and-blue", though. I'll just go in for a minute and see what I can over-hear.

That waitress looks a bit rough around the edges.

Waitress: You want coffee, hon? Cream with that? How about pie?

Guess I'll get some pie. Don't need to draw attention. Damn, she's loud.

Waitress: Pie with vanilla ice cream? Hon, you can have pie or you can have ice cream  or you can have both but you can't have one with. See? Two desserts, then. Thanks, Hon.

Geez. I better sneak outta here before she get's back. Ain't gonna learn anything in here anyway.

[TopBoost]

Overheard at the Corner Booth...

Dude: "Blue thing parked over there by itself? Is that a Ferrari? What kind of douchebag drives a Ferrari?"

Chick: "I think it's hot."

[DirtDriver]

Good to be out here on the parking lot! That woman was intense. Hey, is that Top's Ferrari? Last I heard he was dead!!!!

DD

[TopBoost]

I swear that was the car.  Parked over there underneath the streetlight, like they'uz worried about it getting a ding in the door. 

Waitress! Hey! Oh, what's her name... Kris!

How about warming this up for me?

[Fit4aking]

I have about 2400 words in my actual notebook just waiting to get typed up for this section.  I just need to put down the controller and sit with my laptop for a bit and get it done.  Then the action can commence. 

I've been so busy chasing rivalry times and building up my garage that the story has sort of stalled.  Believe me, there is more to come.

[TopBoost]

Thinking about a reboot on my end. Story just got too dark. Is that allowed?

[Blooze]

Yeah, mine is in serious need of a boot in the butt as well...

[Fit4aking]

Sitting at the counter the other day and a fellow walks in all official looking and tacks a paper to the bulletin board before grabbin lunch over at the to-go station and heading off.  Other than the occasional local babysitter or dog walker the board doesn't see too much action but the bright colored flyer stood out a bit.  I grabbed my coffee mug and headed over, careful not to disrupt Kris and her silverware wrapping. 

It spelled out a new series that requires some travelling but the cars are spec so costs shouldn't be too high.  Hell, if I can get it to fit into an FSRA container they may even consider it part of their series and cover some of the hassle.

A group of Exodus Racing guys are tossing old Chevy IROC Camaro's around  in a semi-world tour over the next few weeks and there isn't a buy-in.  Just need to come up with a car, they paint the thing for ya and assign you a number.  Can't get any easier than that unless they drove for ya, but where's the fun in that.

First round is at Motegi Speedway and Tsukuba, I'm going to be a bit jet-lagged from that trip but what the hay.  Since I'm not heading back to Asia for any extended periods of time in the near future I had to find a similar speedway and technical course close to home since I was able to round up the Camaro the same day the flyer was posted.  (They are all over the place down here.) 

Chet's place has a speedway but it isn't the same layout so I did some scouting and two exits down there is a cloverleaf with different radius turns that heads off to the far end of New Cut Road.  I made a couple loops last night and tweaked the car as best I could.  Only needed some air pressure adjustments for the front end to quicken up and a set of new sway bar links to level the thing out in the bends.  She's good to go, decals are on, number plate is in place and even has my name real big on the door.  That's the rules, not my ego! 

Tonight we should see the green flag and I'll get to race with a whole new group of guys.  Sure beats mixing it up with Chet's hooligans but won't be as fun as the randomness that Dirty Warbucks usually gets up to.