AutoGuide.com is Heading to the 2015 Mazda Adventure Rally

Every once in a while, I spring up out of bed, my face wet with chilled perspiration. It’s a dream that always knocks me into consciousness and interrupts my sleep. I usually sigh and lay back down, troubled, waiting for the morning to arrive.

Only one other person really knows of my reoccurring nightmare. It’s my fellow colleague andAutoGuide.com Road Test Editor Mike Schlee. Let me explain.

Last year, as part of the 2014 Mazda Adventure Rally, we had an incident. With me at the helm of a 2015 Mazda MX-5 and Mr. Schlee in the passenger seat, I crashed our little roadster into a tire wall at Atlanta Motorsport Park. Fortunately, the damage to the plucky Japanese roadster wasn’t enough to disqualify us from the event. In fact, we took our tough MX-5 all the way to the No. 1 spot on the podium, bringing home a shiny first place trophy and a $10,000 donation from Mazda to our charity of choice. Ace driver Mike Schlee made up for my mishap on the track and drove like a man possessed. We were happy that we came in first place despite such an embarrassment.

But my psyche was scarred. The steely faced Mike Schlee, who I’m pretty sure didn’t bat an eyelash as our car careened into the tire wall, wasn’t phased by the event. In fact, he came back from the 2014 Mazda Adventure Rally more potent than ever and introduced his first son into the world roughly nine months later.

Click to expand...