Today Pete and I became Vin Diesel and That Other Guy and sharped our xtreme sports skills at the Mazda Rev It Up event at the former Riverport Amphitheater. We learned how to "performance drive" (read: race) and then got to try out our skills on a number of closed courses before getting feedback from professional drivers (read: retired NASCAR people).

As much as you often want to speed around on the road when you're driving normally, it's surprisingly difficult to make yourself drive a car hard, accelerate around tight corners, and swerve around obstacles. The first time I ran through a tight corner track, the pro told me that I needed to "drive the car like I would drive a rental car. Slam on the brakes and squeal the tires". But it definitely took me a few runs before I really drove aggressively, and even then my course times were not even close to how well other amateurs were doing.

Tomorrow is the last day it's in St. Louis, so I encourage everyone to go. It costs $40 to do the races and competitions (but you get to go on some of the courses as many times as you want), but even if you don't pay this you can test drive some other Mazda cars on a closed course, play free arcade games, and drive go-karts that go 30mph (for a fee). Plus parking is free.

Everyone should go practice up, especially if they want to audition for a part in Apartment 12: The Movie.