Photos from the Goblin's Go

View all of our photos from this year's Goblin's Go at Virginia International Raceway here!

Lemonade and Thank You's

Panic's #1 cheerleader plans to sell Lemonade at this weekend's South Carolina Region PDX/Time Trials/and Double CCPS event at Carolina Motorsports Park. There's more traffic at the track than on our street, and what better audience for a 5 y/o munchkin and a lemonade stand, than a bunch of overheated drivers. ;) I'm told MK is raising money for her school.

Additionally, inspired by Ms. Robin Schmidt, Panic Motorsports will supply a notebook at the Lemonade Stand where you can write a note to a soldier who is serving over seas. With the help of Ms. Schmidt, Panic Motorsports will be adopting a soldier and sending this notebook to him/her. Whether or not you buy a cup of lemonade, please stop by and write an encouraging note or just sign your name to let one of our service member's know that he/she is not forgotten.

Brands Hatch

A letter from our Panic Motorsports English branch...

Hi there,

This is what they had to deal with yesterday.



Only significant injury is a broken ankle.

I'm starting to think that every season there's one type of accident that happens all too often. Some years it's prototypes getting airborne, this year it's single-seaters tagging the car in front and heading for the sky (it happened in this same series at Silverstone in April, Mark Webber did it in the Grand Prix at Valencia and I've seen a few others).

Keep safe

Alan

Hmmm...

Me thinks we had a bit of a miscommunication between Steve and the SCCA membership office. She's only five, but MK has her crew license now! :) Hahaha!

(And for some reason, Blogspot's being a pain, and it keeps turning my photo.)

Car show for charity

Yesterday, at a BIG...
...car show in West Columbia, Panic President, Steve Bertok, and head cheerleader, MariKate, entered their 1988 RX-(7)LS1 and brought home first place in the import category. Entered as "import-ish", the RX-7 got a lot of interest from tuners and purists alike.

And, despite getting caught in a rainstorm with the top down, they had a great day. :)

All proceeds from the car show benefited the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Yep...

Sometimes we get some weird projects at Panic Motorsports. :)

From a friend...

Will you make the pledge to not text while driving? Enter your name in the comment box below!

Quoting...

Look! A whole page of racing quotes:

http://fullthrottle.cranialcavity.net/famous-racing-quotes


My favorite: "Racing is a matter of spirit not strength."
- Janet Guthrie

SWAGGER WAGON

A new generation of car commercials...

For a good cause...

Panic owners Steve and Becca Bertok went Canoeing for Kids on the Saluda today. Thanks to Becky for the suggestion. We had a great time! :o)

Next race: Double CCPS, Double SARRC at Carolina Motorsports Park / Central Carolina Region-SCCA Memorial Monster, 29-30 May

Quote of the Day

Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

(On the other hand, Racer's Tape comes in all kinds of cool colors!)

h/t John Mills, a cool RX-7 racer from the Mid-Ohio region

Benefiting Children's Chance of Irmo

It's Spring Cleaning time!

I couldn't find a photo of a racer cleaning out his garage so this is what you get. ;o)

Declutter your house and benefit Irmo's Children's Chance, for South Carolina families battling pediatric cancer. Bring your gently used items to Panic Motorsport's headquarters by Friday, 12 March. Click here for a list of acceptable donations. We will deliver items to Palmetto's Thrift Store on Saturday, 13 March. Fifty percent of Palmetto's Thrift Store's profits go directly to Children's Chance.

From Children's Chance's web site:

Children’s Chance was formed on September 25, 1996 by two mothers who had daughters battling cancer. The organization was started to fill in gaps among the current services provided for pediatric cancer patients and their families. Children’s Chance & our Ambassador Zig the Pig exist to assist children with cancer and their families throughout the state of South Carolina with non medical needs. Children’s Chance raises money to fund a variety of programs to meet the financial, emotional, and psychological needs of the pediatric cancer patient and their families.

Children's Chance is the only statewide non-profit organization that assists families solely with non-medical needs such as paying mortgages and electric bills and providing families with gas, food, and grocery cards!

So, clean out your closets and bring us your items by 4:30pm on Friday, 12 March:

Panic Motorsports / 4350 B and M Rd. / West Columbia, SC and for more information, call us at 803.261.7629.

The Southern Driver

In the case of the current driver interview on TheSouthernDriver.com, the web page title should read "Meet a Real Transplanted Southern Driver." ;) Our fearless leader, Steve Bertok, moved to South Carolina from Toledo when he was 13 years old. After attending the 1999 Petit Le Mans on a whim, some years later, he became supremely interested in sports cars. Although Steve has worked in the automotive industry since his teens, he was a PBA bowler before racing cars. After the '99 Petit Le Mans and a few other ALMS events, Steve responded to an email that I (Becca) sent to a local car club in June 2000, just after I had returned from les 24 Heures du Mans. The email was an invite to a Flagging and Communications Seminar that I was hosting at my parents' home. South Carolina Region needed some new workers, and Steve just happened to be one of the guys who responded. We quickly became friends, started dating about 4 months later, and well, the rest is history. ;) You see, my dad, Julian Watson, is a former rally driver, and my mom, Barbara, worked as a navigator and course marshal; so as you can tell, I've grown up in the Sports Car Club of America. It's a little known fact around the paddock that I was into SCCA racing long before Steve. I attended my first race, the legendary Chimney Rock Hillclimb, when I was just four weeks old (yep that's me; notice the classic Road Atlanta hat).

After winning all sorts of awards and championships in the SeDiv's Solo II program, Steve was ready to move up. Steve and I started work on a Spec Miata shortly after we began dating, and he went to drivers' school in 2002, one month before our wedding. Ah, if only Steve had gotten into racing earlier in life. Steve is an amazing driver! He's patient. He learns the course, the car, his opponents. He may not be at the front of the pack early on, but he's going to get there! He's fast in anything! Steve was having so much fun in the Spec Miata, that I wanted to join in.

I went to Driver's School in 2004 and ran a few races before becoming pregnant later in the year. I got back into racing just six weeks after MariKate was born in March 2005 and ran until 2007. After taking a hit in the driver's door and fracturing my wrist, I dropped out. It wasn't the wrist fracture...after all, I managed to complete the pass I was attempting when I was hit and raced again the following day before making it to a doctor's office on Monday. ;) However, with my poor feet condition and constant physical therapy, the broken wrist was, in my mind, a hint to perhaps take up a job behind the wall, rather than the wheel. Having had complete reconstruction on both feet, well, it tends to mess things up all around and driving racecars is not necessarily the safest of sports. It's not like I took up knitting, but I took a safer post as Steve's Crew Chief, Team Communicator, and Team Photographer...and Team Chef and Team Nurse; you get the idea. haha! I thoroughly enjoy all of it! We're up to five team drivers now so it's lots of fun! As mentioned in The Southern Driver article, our daughter, MariKate, who will turn five this year is Dada's number one cheerleader and crew member! She has so much fun at the track! She takes care of Dada, our other drivers, crew members, etc. She helps change tires too, all while wearing pink and the cutest pig tails around (or "doggie ears" as we call them).

In 2006, Steve stepped out of his longtime salvage-parts-sales job to make Panic Motorsports into a business. As you know, we offer Mazda Miata and RX-7 parts...sometimes too; Porsche, Volvo, etc. We are looking to expand our offerings soon with new car makes and models (perhaps the Mini) but for now, we're remaining focused on Mazda parts, Spec Miata prep, streetcar service, etc. We have a web store, an Ebay store, and clients can order direct by calling 803.261.7629 or visiting our shop in West Columbia.

Steve's racing has brought home a few Driver of the Year Awards and two Carolina Cup Pro Series Spec Miata Championships (2008, 2009). The new season starts in three weeks, with Steve and his crew gearing up to make a three-peat for the 2010 CCPS season. However, if you ask Steve, all of his races this year are testing for Panic to make its strongest run ever at the 13 Hour Charge of the Headlight Brigade at Virginia International Raceway in November. Panic has had the right mix of car and drivers the past few years, only to be knocked out by electrical gremlins, freak metal failures of differential components, etc. This year, we're going to make it to the podium!

Racing is such an enormous part of our lives. It's not only our business, passion, and pleasure, but it's our livelihood, our family's enjoyment, and pure fun! My parents, our daughter, our friends; SCCA is our second family, and we wouldn't have it any other way! I am so proud of Steve! I thank him for his help and support during my many physical trials. I thank him for being a wonderful Father. I support his decision to take a leap of Faith and start his own business, and I am proud to help him in that. It hasn't all been cherries and feathers, but it's certainly been a fun ride, and I can't wait to see what the future holds!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Ted Theodore, our dear friend and proprietor of TheSouthernDriver.com, for interviewing Steve. Quite obviously, reading the interview this morning and seeing all of the photos got me on a kick about how Panic Motorsports came about. It's so much more than just a business. :)

2009 Championship and 2010 Appreciation

Well, it's finally been announced. Panic Motorsports owner and president, Steve Bertok, won the 2009 Carolina Cup Pro Series Spec Miata Championship! The official announcement of the results came yesterday, 4 January, from E-Speed Motorsports owner and CCPS Director, Estus White.
In celebration of our win, and to thank you for your continued support and patronage of Panic Motorsports, we are offering 10% off (up to $100) on your first direct order of 2010, through 31 January. Order on-line (click on the photo above to go to the store, and use coupon code new2010 at check out) or call us at 803.261.7629 to place your order. This discount does not apply to purchases from our Ebay store.

Panic Motorsports would like to thank Ben Hinson, Ess White, and all the other CCPS Spec Miata guys for the awesome competition! Panic driver Steve Fricker finished 5th in points; an admirable finish for his first CCPS season. We would also like to extend our thanks to our friends and sponsors at:

Race Engineering

Carbotech

TraqMate

St. Andrews Express Paint and Body

Ahab Studios

Safe-Quip

And of course, Mazda!