This is not a story about a piston ring or a ring gear. It’s about a substitute for an engagement ring that only car enthusiasts will appreciate. You see, Brad was a self-proclaimed computer geek looking for something to get him away from sitting at a desk all day. Fortunately, he was inspired to make his avocation being a gearhead, more specifically an autocross gearhead.
Brad was also a bachelor looking for a partner shortly after being inspired by autocross. As luck would have it, he started dating someone who was interested in him, but just as important learning what was of interest to him.
Her name was Mandy. Mandy was not a car enthusiast at the time, but she was interested in competition in all its forms. This competitive spirit had been developed in her over the years by participating in a variety of sports. She excelled as an athlete in high school, even winning at the state level, and she continued at the collegiate level making the varsity all four years in college and being part of a league championship.
So, as the two got to know each other better, Mandy got into autocross racing. And now, Brad had found his other half. Some might think this was a normal courtship, and it was until the marriage proposal. This is where the story gets interesting.
By the time Brad was ready to propose, he knew that Mandy had taken her competitive drive and focused it on autocross. She had her daily driver for commuting, but it was less than ideal as an investment to compete at the level she would eventually want to compete, that being the Sports Car Club of America sanctioned events. At the appropriate moment, Brad asked that very un-familiar question: “Track car or ring?”
She chose the car, a 2006 Mazda Miata, and she got a personalized license plate that read, “My Ring”. She took it to over 30 SCCA competitions and it soon became known as the “Ring”. While using it to compete against other Miatas, Honda S2000s, Nissan 350Zs, Toyota MR-2s and the like, Mandy used the couple’s Subaru WRX in Class ESP-L to win SCCA Nationals in 2013 and 2014.
By 2020 and 2021, much of life changed as the pandemic caused many constraints and also gave time for reflection. Mandy and Brad decided that when the restrictions were lifted, they would put all their autocross energies into the WRX and sell the Miata. Now, you might say that’s an interesting story, but what does it have to do with 3 Cousins 3 Cars 3 Charities?
This is where Mike comes into the story. Mandy grew up in the midwest, where her mother, Mary was an educator, who coincidentally worked with Mike at the same school starting in 1973. In 1977, Mike moved to pursue other interests in the school business. It was the same year Mandy was born.
While Mary stayed in the same place her whole career, Mike moved from place to place eight times in the span of 37 years, but always close enough to see Mary at social gatherings of the former school staff. As fate would have it, Mary and Mike both ended up at the same organization from which they both retired. But, this time, Mary retired and moved away to the southwest to be closer to where Mandy had settled, and Mike intended to stay put.
In a peculiar twist of fate, Mike would end up moving with his wife to the southwest a few years after Mary had moved. Mike’s original retirement plan was to further pursue his avocation of amateur sports car racing, which he had been doing for 40+ years at a local track not far from his home. He thought he would have to give up this long time hobby once he moved. Turns out he was wrong.
Mary introduced him again to Mandy, their first time meeting since he had met her as a newborn baby some 40 years before. She and Brad kindly took the senior citizen under their wings and helped him find what motorsports there was to offer in the area.
While Mike maintained his interest in motorsports, he no longer had anything to “wrench on”. He wasn’t really looking for a “spirited” driving car when his brother and cousin reminded him that “we’re not getting any younger if the three of us are going to drive Route 66”, the Mother Road, from Chicago to Santa Monica, a distance of 2,500 miles one-way. Mike explained his circumstances and offered to go along with a support vehicle. He was told flat out that was never the plan and he had a year to find something suitable for this long-anticipated open road experience.
Shortly after that, Mandy and Brad invited Mike to join them and their friends at a race. During the course of the race, Mike asked if the Miata was still for sale. It was, and then and there a deal was made. So the car that was purchased as an engagement ring in 2010 was sold to a guy in 2023 who had a momentary introduction to the owner as a little baby in 1977.
Mike’s only complaint about the car is, “Why didn’t I get one of these sooner?” While the current set up of the car is for autocrossing, he doesn’t plan to change it much other than getting it ready for a 5,000 mile road trip where it will finally spend as much time in fourth and fifth gears as it did in the lower gears when it was in Mandy’s competent hands on autocross courses.
The legend of The Ring will continue to be told at every opportunity along Route 66. It will also hopefully encourage more women to participate in motorsports. However, it may not be so beneficial for the jewelry industry.
