Turns out, automotive journalist like to drive. Who knew? And it seems more and more are deciding SCCA Track Night driven by the Tire Rack is a pretty good place to put their long term test cars through the paces.

Last month we noticed a couple of cars showed up with manufacture plates at our event at Grattan. Turns out, both the Jaguar F-Type S Coupe and the BMW M235i were test cars for Automobilemag.com. Both test reports talked a bit about Track Night (we always appreciated that) but both were really about the cars themselves (which we are fine with).

Then, last week Mark Baruth, or Bark M. as he is known at thetruthaboutcars.com showed up at our Bowling Green event with a Focus ST and, as only Bark himself can do, took things to a whole new level. What did he think?  Well, in summary:

"Let me just say this: Track Night in America is the best and cheapest way for virtually anybody to experience a track in his own car. You could spend your Tuesday nights watching a sitcom or passively observing a sporting event or you could get your ass into your car and be a DRIVER. Even if only for an hour. Even if you never actually race. You’re participating. You’re an active member of your own entertainment. I promise you, you’ll catch the bug."

You can check out the article in all it’s unfiltered, opinionated glory here.

You never know who is going to show up at a track night.  The guy beside you could be an accountant or he could be a writer for Truth About Cars (not that there is anything wrong with being an accountant).  So next time you are at a Track Night event, keep your eyes out for tell tale signs- brand new cars, plates from way out of state, high end photo equipment and embroidered laptop bags. You never know, a well-positioned paddock spot or grid position could get you and your car in the digital pages of one of one car blog or another.