If you have been keeping up with our newsletter or blog posts, you probably already know that we will be hosting a track day in Texas this November, but you didn’t know all the details. Well, today the suspense ends! CorkSport, with the help of Texas Mazda Speed Demons and Roger Beasley Mazda, will be hosting a track day on November 3, 2012 at Harris Hill Raceway from 9am-6pm.
Harris Hill Raceway (H2R) is located in the hills of northeastern San Marcos, Texas, just 26 miles from downtown Austin and about 55 miles from downtown San Antonio. The track is a 1.82-mile, 11-turn asphalt road course. The course is 36-feet wide with over 150 feet of elevation changes and within the 11 turns there are increasing radius turns, decreasing radius turns, positive camber, negative camber (and one turn that has both within the same turn!), one long sweeper, several blind corners, and an 80-foot rise-and-fall in one turn.
CorkSport will be offering lead/follow track time between 9am-6pm that includes 5 laps on the track for just $25.00 pre-paid and $35.00 the day of the event. In addition, our co-sponsor, Roger Beasley Mazda will have some expert drifters attending to provide a drift demonstration and EMS Powered will be on hand with their dyno chassis to provide dyno runs (three pulls for $50).
If your not that interested in all that stuff (are you crazy?!) then you can always just come park your car, enjoy the show, and hang with other like minded Mazda enthusiasts!
I was surprised to learn that there is track racing in Alaska, but when long time friend Chris invited me to spend Memorial Day weekend co-driving an IT Rx7 at a place called Tanacross, I hit the internet to see what I could find out. It turns out the track was actually used during World War II to supply Russia with planes to fight the Germans. It was one of the airports that planes would stop at for fuel during the long flight to Russia.
The airstrip is currently used by the department of natural resources and maintained for firefighting. They land the C130 tankers and fill them up with water from the river at the end of the main runway. The airfield has also been used for racing in all forms for many years.
The Anchorage Alaska Sports Car Lions Club hosts two events each year at Tanacross, one on Memorial Day weekend and the other on Labor Day weekend. The events consist of wheel to wheel racing for part of the day, than street car time trails for the other part of the day.
After a flight into Anchorage and a 6 hour drive, I arrived at the track for the weekend. You can’t ask for more spectacular mountain views and scenery than Tanacross has to offer.
I did find a few drawbacks to the Alaska wilderness though. The mosquitos are big enough to shoot them with a gun and take them home for a trophy and the track is literally just a track in the middle of nowhere so you have to campout at the track or bring an RV.
On the first day of racing, I got suited up with my gear and rode in the passenger seat of the IT Rx7 I was co-driving for the weekend. This allowed me to get a run through of the track, see how it was laid out, and get some practice.
After the warm-up laps, which included a surprise caribou running across the track, the racing got underway. We drew lug-nuts with numbers etched into them to determine the starting order. There were nine cars in the heat and Chris (who took the first heat) was towards the back of the field.
During the first race, Chris battled it out with an IT class Rabbit that led to a victory in the IT class and second overall to a GT class 280z (with a swapped V8 power plant). Unfortunately for a Subaru STI in the first round, a turbo failure two laps into the race ended his weekend.
After a brief break in the racing, I got belted into the Rx7 to take my turn. Since Chris had gotten the Rx7 up to 2nd place overall, I got a good starting order for the next round.
Since the track is an airstrip, the course was setup with cones making it feel like a really fast and wide autocross track until you hit the straight section. That is when I jammed it into fourth gear flat-out and approached the 100mph mark before hitting the corner end.
I chased the 280z that won the first heat for a few laps until he started pulling away. Each time I hit the straight section of the track, I found myself fighting it out for second place with a Rabbit. The Rabbit was faster in certain sections of the track and I made an error that allowed him to overtake me. With just a few laps left, we caught up with lapped traffic which made the battle really interesting. An IT Neon in front of us made a really fast line correction. To avoid getting hit, The Rabbit and my RX7 had to dodge the Neon and I was able to get in front of the two cars to finish with the IT win in that round. Lap times for the course were around the 1:20’s for the wheel to wheel IT cars.
After the race, I reflected a bit. The surface reminded me of what Sebring looks like and I thought, “this is how the racing surface must feel like there”. I could feel the joints in the concrete sections under hard cornering and in order to keep my foot planted on the throttle, I had to put my faith in the tires and suspension that the car would stick and not send me spinning off the track.
After the second race, the wheel to wheel racing took a break and the time trail cars got out on the track for their turn. Later that afternoon the wheel to wheel racing picked up again and I was able to fight it out with an IT class Golf, made more exciting by some light rain. The throttle inputs and cornering was even more exciting when being chased down by another car. In the end, a spin by the Golf got me in front for the rest of the race and I finished first.
After the racing wrapped up for the day, the track became a campground and social gathering for the evening. Walking from campfire to campfire talking about the days racing, I lost track of time. By looking at the sky, I was thinking was around 9pm or so when it was really 1am. Take a look at the picture below to get an idea of how light it is in the middle of the “night”.
The next day you could tell the “socializing” had caught up to some people. The racing started a little bit later than the previous day. I raced in the first heat and managed to pull away from the field a bit and landed in first place in front of the GT class Z which had started at the back of the field.
I would have to say, my last race of the day was the best and most exciting. There was a GT class mustang that had been running mid-pack all day and had been down on power. After trouble shooting on Saturday and part of Sunday, it was discovered the timing had been retarded leaving the car way down on power. With the timing fixed, the mustang was putting out around 400 wheel hp. Starting from the back of the pack, the mustang had to catch up with me at the front of the field. From the drop of the green, I knew I was going to have to drive at the top of my game to be at the front at the end of the race.
The green flag went down and I let it rip hoping the field behind me could slow down the mustang enough to let me get some distance. On the 6th lap I saw the mustang at the start of the straight when I was hitting the end. By the 8th lap he really began catching up in the straights and by the last lap, the mustang had caught up with me. I managed to get a gap between us in the tight sections of the track and hit the exit of the corner leading to the straight perfectly.
The track narrowed up so I put myself right in the middle keeping the Mustang from passing me to take the lead. I made it through the corner and hit the finish with the mustang right behind me, finishing the race in first place. I had a grin ear-to-ear going around the track during the cool down lap and afterward, went over and thanked the mustang driver for the great race.
After the final race there was some free time to take hot laps with the time trail people and took some laps in a borrowed Honda S2000. The track had gotten some light rain so the S2000 was a bit twitchy in certain sections when the Vtac kicked in (Yo!). The Rx7 I had been driving in the races seemed to be more stable on the track.
I want to give a huge thanks to Chris for letting me drive his Rx7 at the races and to all the great people I raced with during the weekend. Also a big thanks for the pictures I “borrowed” from the Alaska Motorsports Forum.
-Derrick
Alaska. Land of Opportunity and Racing September 13th, 2018CorkSport
It is hard to believe that it is already time to start making selections for CorkSport’s next calendar, but November will be here before you know it and due to the huge success of our 2012 calendar, CorkSport has plans to offer a 2013 calendar for all of our fans to enjoy again in the coming year!
Would you like to see your car in our next edition of the CorkSport calendar? Well now is your chance. This post is an all call for photo submissions for the 2013 calendar.
Requirements for submissions are as follows:
Must have high quality photos of your ride. No iPhone or Android pics please.
Include a list of modifications, and yes, of course we want to see lots of CorkSport mods, but will consider all submissions.
You must have permission to use the photo and by submitting for the calendar you are granting CorkSport permission to use the photos in print and on the web to promote the calendar and our products.
If possible, please remove the license plate, avoid shots of the license plate or photoshop out the license plate.
If your photo is selected for the calendar, a complimentary calendar will sent along to you upon release.
Please submit all photos, questions, and charity ideas to Gwynne at gwynne@corksport.com and remember, CorkSport supports the full lineup of Mazda vehicles, so whether you drive a Speed3, a Miata, a CX7 or a Cosmo, if you have a nice ride and a great pic, CorkSport wants to see it!
Gwynne
Is Your Car CorkSport Calendar Worthy? June 12th, 2012CorkSport
CorkSport began our new financing program in partnership with GE capital just two months ago and is pleased to announce our new special financing offer just in time for event season! Our new financing program provides customers with the option to purchase with zero down payment and 0% interest for six months on all purchases over $299!
Six months no interest means that you can take your purchase and spread the payments out over several months and it is the same as cash. Here is quick breakdown to give you an idea of what your payments would look like on our CarCareOne six months no interest payment program:
As always, CorkSport wants you to mod responsibly, so keep in mind that as with any retail financing card that you might come across, after the six month promotional period has ended, the interest rate jumps to 29.99%. We highly recommend using the six month interest free period to pay off each of your purchases, but for each purchase you make of $299.00 or more, you will always get the six month grace period to pay it off before you accrue interest!
Approval is quick and easy. Simply fill out an online credit application. It takes three seconds or less to obtain approval and once approved, you will receive a line of credit immediately. You can place your order by phone or online with your new Car Care One Credit card.
The new Car Care One CorkSport credit card is accepted at a number of national retailers including Tire Factory, Discount Tire, and Summit Racing making this not only a practical but versatile addition to your wallet.
Until now, the customer car of the month has been selected by CorkSport, but this month we wanted to try something a little different and get our customers involved in the selection process.
We have two randomly selected customers that have submitted their cars for consideration and we want to know which one you think should be featured as this month’s CorkSport customer car!
This month we have two solid contenders for the feature:
Derek Katayama’s 2004 Mazda 6
“I went for a full JDM look to the car; including the aero body kit from Kenstyle of Tokyo. Derrick helped me bring in ALL the parts I needed to convert the front and rear of the USDM Mazda 6 to accept the JDM body kit.”
Samuel Martinek’s 2010 Mazdaspeed 3
“So far I have spent about $4k on my speed three and there are still plans for more!”
To cast your vote on which customer car you want to hear more about, simply comment on this blog post, our Facebook thread, or our Twitter Feed. The one with the most votes will be featured later this month in our April newsletter and blog.
Interested in submitting your car for our feature? email a photo and current mods to gwynne@corksport.com
Gwynne-
Cast Your Votes for April’s Featured Car of the Month! September 13th, 2018CorkSport
