Hi, it's me again, Yojiro Terada. Today, August 18th, I conducted media relations for the entire day at a Mazda test drive event in San Francisco. Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) invited a huge number of automobile journalists to drive and get their impression of a variety of Mazda cars. I heard I was going to be driving race cars at a race track, but I guess I misunderstood. As it turned out, I spent the day driving Mazda road cars as part of my media relations' activities. I was introduced to a large group of journalists and when I told them that I'd entered the Le Mans 24 Hours a total of 29 times, they were amazed!

Anyway, it is very exciting to be in the States as there are so many ‘car guys' here. Also, the owners of the incredibly valuable historic race cars attending the Monterey Reunion, are of course, enthusiastic car lovers as well. When I took a look at the event brochure (produced by MNAO) and what Mazda race cars would be in attendance, I found that Jeremy Barnes, Director of Product and Corporate Communications at MNAO, would be driving a 4-rotor RX-7 GTO; and Robert Davis, MNAO's Senior Vice President, was scheduled to pilot a 1991 Mazda 787. Although they are very busy people, they practiced over and over for this event. I think that's fantastic, don't you?

The #55 Mazda 787B, which I'm driving in this event, has finally arrived. However, it has just been unloaded from the container, and the 787B's mechanic Mr. Nomura (who comes from Mazda Hiroshima's HQ) told me that he's going to the race track early in the morning to check the chassis and engine in the maintenance area before I can take the car out.

I'm going to go and have dinner with Mr. Nomura so we can store up some energy for our busy day ahead. Tomorrow I can finally drive at the track. See you then!