What if a place to drive didn’t have to be an epic tidy world-class experience? What if it wasn’t 500 acres of jaw dropping landscape? What if it was 40 acres of cast off and forgotten space?
I’ve only been for a handful of laps around Motorland Mikawa, but I’m so deeply in love with this place that I seem to reflect on it daily. At full length, the course stretches out to a very stumpy 1.2km. The configuration that I’ve run is only 800m… and yet I never wanted another turn.
Broken and patched pavement be damned. If we can wind engines up and stretch out the tires it doesn’t really matter. Beggars can’t be choosers.
And don’t be mistaken… something close to beggars really are the target market here. This is not Fuji Speedway. I’ve never seen a fleet of Porsche Cup cars blasting down Mikawa’s 1/8 mile long front straight. Porsche owners, would also likely chuckle at 4500円 open lapping (or drifting) entry fees.
Porsche owners however, would not chuckle at the 30 ft tall dirt embankment that lines the outside of turn one.
Mikawa is not a place for drivers who have more money than they do skill. This is the home of the shakotan 86, whose world doesn’t end if things turn up-side down. This is a place to start if you want to annihilate the touge. That, I suppose is why I’m so romantic about this track…
In all respects, it is something lost from my current life.
Did you see this when it was posted on Speedhunters?
http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/06/villains-sportsland/