聽 Friday afternoon, while most of the San Diego National Tour was busy unloading cars from trailers and setting up their paddock spaces, Shields Hull quietly and unassumingly was changing back to his street tires so he and his Miata could make the trip home for the evening. 聽His paddock area was simple enough, a jack, a few tools and whichever tires happened to not be on the car at the time. 聽In contrast to his neighbors, sporting motorhomes, enclosed trailers and even the occasional glass of wine, Shields鈥� spread was minimalistic to say the least.聽 Fitting though, as this was to be his third autocross, ever. [caption id="attachment_307" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Tours are daunting enough, even when you don't have Super Stock bearing down on you"][/caption] While it is difficult for him to admit now, Shields and his friends back in Atlanta, Georgia first got into cars through the Fast and Furious movies. 聽Initially this Hollywood induced need for speed was met with a Corvette, but with an interest in autocross and an eye on the budget, the Corvette did not seem to be the right car to start out in. 聽Some research on SCCAForums.com lead him to the conclusion that the E-Stock Miata would be the place to start. 聽From there, Shields ran a few local events and with a Tour looming in his backyard, picked up a set of Kumho R-Compound tires and decided to come play with the big boys. For many, the Tour experience starts on Friday, claiming a prime paddock spot, getting teched and putting in some laps on the Practice Course. 聽Shields did it one better by signing up for the Evolution Advantage School. 聽The school, geared toward getting drivers ready for a bigger event, gave Shields a chance to get used to his new set up, 鈥淚 think the Evo school helped in a few ways. My car was at a different prep level than I was used to with the tires, so jumping into that on a non race day made a big difference. The instruction provided really changed my approach to navigating a course.鈥� [caption id="attachment_309" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Sheilds Hull, eyes up, power down - on course at the San Diego Tour"][/caption] Shields headed into competition with one goal, not to finish last. 聽While this may seem like a fairly humble ambition, at a National level event, even the competition to 鈥榥ot finish last鈥� can be stiff. 聽Despite driving well and posting respectable times, Shields was not able to meet his goal, but all was not lost. 聽When asked if he was happy with his performance, he said, 鈥淥ver all I am happy. I could have done a bit better dialing my tire pressures in, and used a lot more heat in the tires. The course layout was tons of fun, and once I settled in and followed fundamentals, I was in a comfortable margin to national level drivers in fully prepped cars. Much better than I would have done a week earlier.鈥� As happy as Shields seemed with his performance, Shields seemed even more pleased with the over all experience of the weekend. 聽鈥淭his was definitely a different experience from the few local events I have done. Some amazing cars and talent from around the country and locally.鈥� 聽He added, 鈥� 聽I would say the best part of the Tour for me would be the people. I had a lot of good discussion with some of the other Miata drivers. 聽It is good to learn from their experiences.鈥� 聽By weekend鈥檚 end, Shields had even joined a local club. I asked Shields what advice he would give to novice drivers who are considering running a National level event, 鈥淚 think there is a good deal of the intimidation of it being a 'National' event. I know there was for me. Combining the three-day long event, larger financial burden (still pretty cheap for a weekend of fun), and the national level drivers/cars was a bit much, but enjoyable. Coming with an open mind and getting information from veterans made a big difference.鈥� All in all, it was a pretty successful weekend for Shields. 聽From here, he and his wife Liz plan to run events in Southern California, perhaps take some schools.聽 Have no doubt, next year when the Tour comes to town, the Hulls will be ready to go.