CorkSport is happy to announce touring car availability for those people/teams who want a fun-to-drive and great-looking race/track-focused Mazda 3! The goal of the build was to make a competitive and reliable TC race car and get Mazda back into multi-make competition, which goes back to the Speed Vision and World Challenge days of the early 2000s.
For the 2024 season CorkSport has been validating the design work and lessons learned racing the CorkSport Mazda 3 TC in the SRO TC America TC class. We had multiple podium finishes and ran at the front proving the competitiveness of the Mazda platform against the Hyundai, Honda, and Mini TC class cars.
The base of the build is the Mazda 2.5 Skyactiv engine with a CorkSport bespoke turbo kit developing well over 300 wheel hp in TC trim. The TC car engine management is handled by a Motec M1 ECU, in conjunction with a Bosch Motorsports LC2 wideband controller, and a Motec C125 dash/logger.
The 6 speed Mazda gearbox is equipped with a clutch type LSD and upgraded 3-4 gears with a transmission cooler, while the clutch is an off the shelf X-Clutch single disc clutch/flywheel combo.
Penske shocks/Swift springs, CorkSport upper mounts, and upgraded suspension pick-up points handle road racing while allowing for accurate suspension settings.
Braking is handled by a 364x32mm 6 piston CorkSport race brake kit which uses floating front rotors paired with upgraded rear pads and brakelines on OEM calipers. The brakes are covered with 18×10 Enkei lightweight RPF1 wheels.
To top off the build is the widebody kit which includes, front bumper, splitter, front and rear fenders, side skirts, rear bumper and TCr spec rear wing.
SRO Circuit of the Americas 2024
There is limited availability for the start of the 2025 race season. Currently 2 cars are left for delivery early 2025 for the 2025 TC America race season.
Living on the west coast, we are pretty fortunate to have access to quite a few cool road race tracks up and down the I5. There is a good handful right in our backyard of Washington State a few in Oregon State and even one that is a city track and is all of 4 miles away. Yes that one kind of spoils us as Derrick himself has worked, drove there during lunch in his racecar, qualified for a race, and then drove back all in a matter of 45 minutes. I don’t care who you are that’s just bad ass.
As we were building some engines the other night, we got to thinking about all the cool tracks that we got to visit last year in 2017 and how many other cool ones we want to check out in 2018.
So, we decided to throw up my list of the top 5 tracks that I think every Mazda owner should drive in their lifetime. These tracks are not presented in any particular order, and we’ve only actually been to half of them. No right or wrong answers here but what follows is our list of 5 tracks we think you guys should all hit up. So strap in and let’s go racing.
We’ll start with the obvious here, and that’s the one that has our favorite manufacture in the title. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. This track resides in the landscape of central California and has been around since the late 50’s. Known best for its infamous Corkscrew section this 11 turn race track is world famous, and you can’t play any racing video game or simulator without this track being one of the featured races. We haven’t done this one yet, but you better believe it’s on our bucket list. Fun fact, or perhaps sad fact, depending on how you look at it; Mazda will not be renewing its sponsorship this year with the world-famous race track. So that means starting in April that Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will simply be known as Laguna Seca.
Next up is Road America. This one is a big one. Spanning over 4 miles long this is one of the longest road race courses across the World. The long straight that crosses the start-finish lets you put the pedal to the medal. We’ve seen many of cars run out of gearing on this long straight. That coupled with the fact that you have to go uphill first to start will really but that full load on your engine, but man is it fun.
For my next pick, we chose Hallett Motor Racing Circuit. Reason for that is we found it to be one of the most challenging circuits that we’ve ever driven on. And by challenging we mean it eats brakes. Granted we were always in a car that was not particularly suited for this track, but we did always find this to be a tough course. It was always challenging to lay down a clean lap, but we learned a lot from having driven on this one. We recommend this one to anyone that wants to get some good experience and refine their skill.
This next one has some really cool history and an even cooler track surface. Opening up just a few years after the end of World War Sebring International Raceway is actually built on a converted airport. The track used to be what was called Hendricks Field and was an airbase used to train B-17 combat crews. What’s even cooler is that part of this track still uses some of the original airport runways and makes for the craziest ride over the last corner. Combining a mix of concrete and asphalt this track is sure to punish even the best of drivers.
Last but not least we decided to go with Circuit of the Americas mostly because of two reasons. One it brought back Formula 1 to the United States, and we think that is super important for the sport and will help grow its fan base in the USA. 2nd because the track is new, modern, and cutting edge. Having only opened in 2012 this track is still but a baby. But like most children with time and patience, this track will be one of the worlds greatest we feel like.
There you have it. Our short and sweet lists of 5 tracks in the USA that we think are worth visiting. Maybe we will see you at one of them this year? Maybe we can trade a little paint too if you are up to it. Let us know what you think of this list in the comments below or share some of your favorites with us.
An interesting article popped up a few days ago in which John Dagy, a journalist with Sportscar365, was discussing the TCR class of cars with John Doonan, the head of Mazda Motorsports program.
I have been following the TCR series for a while now with some interest in it as the car Mazda offers that fits best is the Mazda 3, and I enjoy the time I have had racing CorkSport’s Gen3 Mazda 3.
What is nice about the series is that it is meant to race four-door saloons, all with a 2.0 turbo motor and a price-capped ceiling of 135,000. Most people would freak out a bit with that price but what you are getting is a fully developed car with a spec sheet. Each manufacturer designates a builder, whether themselves or a shop, to assemble the cars and provide support.
Mazda is in an interesting spot; they have their successful Global MX5 cup series and the IMSA Prototypes with Joest, but there is a middle-ground hole that has been filled with the older NC Miatas. With the NCs not being a current production model, it makes sense to get something in there to fill in the blanks.
In the past, Mazda had used the Mazdaspeed 3 as the basis, and it did well capturing the championships in PWC and IMSA ST class, but the lack of a turbo model makes this a challenge.
Most people think Nascar when they hear about Daytona International Speedway. To road course guys like me, it’s the site of a 24-hour race, which we wait for every year in January. This past year, I participated in the SCCA Majors to qualify to run two different classes at the Runoffs, which were hosted at the Daytona Intl. Speedway.
My normal racetrack chariot is a 2011 Mazda 2 B-Spec, which I’ve raced for the past 4 years.
Derrick’s 2011 Mazda 2 B-Spec from Daytona coming out of turn 3.
I’ve been quietly building a 2015 Mazda 3 Sedan with a 2.5 engine to run in the SCCA T-4 class starting late in the season this year with the purpose of running it at Daytona. We picked up the car from getting the cage installed and had nine days to get all of the parts installed, get it dyno tuned for 98 octane, and load it up into a trailer to go to Daytona via Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. There’s nothing like taking a completely unsorted car to a national championship race on the other side of the country, just for fun.
At the Pirelli World Challenge race weekend at Mazda Raceway, the CorkSport Mazda 2 was piloted by Joey Jordan and swept the three races for a perfect weekend. In between the Mazda 2 getting serviced, we worked on the Mazda 3, getting the sound deadener removed, seat mounted, and safety gear installed. We also changed the springs installed on the car to CorkSport’s 2014+ Mazda 3 springs to make the ride height lower. At Daytona, you want less aero drag because of the low profile, so having the car as low as you can get it helps the speed on the oval section.
After the last race was finished up at Pirelli, we loaded up both Mazdas and headed to Daytona, which is a 44-hour drive across the country.
We arrived at Daytona on Friday to do some final setup on the Mazda 2 and finish the prep work on the Mazda 3 before our test day on Saturday.
I’ve raced at Autoclub speedway in Fontana California before, so I was familiar with a banked track but not quite as familiar with that long of a time on the track.
In the Mazda 2, I found myself looking around at the scenery a lot during the Saturday test day. The infield was fun to find the limits on the car and mastering the bus stop with a quick hit of the brake then back on the gas was a big challenge for me.
In the Mazda 3 on Sunday, I got a reminder of what a new car can be like while getting everything dialed in. I had massive understeer with the car and had to modulate the throttle constantly to get the car to turn. On the straight sections, the car was fast and I could hang with most of the cars out there if I got enough of a run out of the corners. To give you an idea of how much faster the Mazda 3 was at the time trap, the fastest draft time I got with the Mazda 2 was 119mph. In the Mazda 3, it was 139mph. This was before you head into a turn and slow down in the shortest possible space before busting a quick left into the infield. If you get it wrong, the guys behind you made up time on you. If you get it right, you can get more of a lead.
Another huge problem I had with the Mazda 3 was I couldn’t see anything out of the left side of the car. The window size is pretty small, the window net didn’t help, and the massive left mirror did its best to keep me from seeing the apex or the other cars.
I qualified for the championship race 15th out of 22 cars, which isn’t great, but it’s not the back of the field. I was four seconds off the pace of the pole sitting Honda Civic, which gives you an idea of how well sorted that car was in comparison to the Mazda 3 in its first weekend at the track.
Honestly, the T-4 started off pretty crappy for me. I got jumped on the start and was forced to the outside of turn 1 where I couldn’t judge the car next to me going through the corner, so I lost a spot. Two laps later, I got to watch Scotty White in his Mustang get turned into by a RSX right in front of me going into the bus stop, which made for some great front row entertainment. Toss in a few dive bombs by a Camaro and it made for a good time. I spent the rest of the race trying to be as nice to my front left tire in the infield as I could.
In the end, I finished in 15th, which is the exact spot I started the race in! For this upcoming season, we’ll work on the suspension setup to improve the car’s cornering speeds to be more competitive and work on the driver setup.
I have to give a big thanks to CorkSport for the parts installed on the Mazda 3, which worked flawlessly, Joey Jordan Motorsports for the spotting and chassis setup at the track, Joe at Dynotronics for the 98 octane Skyactiv Tune in a super short period of time, Monarch Inspections for letting us steal your worker bee to drive the truck across the country, 47 Moto for the wrench help, Mazdaspeed Motorsports for being the best vehicle manufacturer that supports club racing, and my wife and kids for putting up with me running off to chase my dreams.
Daytona International Speedway and a Mazda 3 September 22nd, 2020CorkSport
Mazda has already made the announcement that they intend to begin offering the Mazda SkyActiv-D (diesel engine) on the CX-5 in the US market in 2013 and as a leader in the motorsports arena, it should come as no surprise that the latest announcement surrounding their new SkyActiv diesel technology comes on the racetrack.
Mazda announced that they will be supplying SkyActiv-D engines to the GRAND-AM series GX class. Set to debut in 2013, the rules for the GX class are still being developed, but are expected to showcase the exploration of clean diesels, alternative fuels and even hybrid powertrains.
In press release distributed by Mazda Motorsports, Jay Amestoy, Vice President of Mazda Motorsports, Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) was quoted saying, “This opens a new chapter in racing for us. We’ve won with rotary technology, and now we’re looking to again put our customers in the winner’s circle with what we believe will be the most advanced and cleanest production-based powerplant the sport has ever seen.”
The engine is being jointly developed by Mazda Motor Corporation, Mazda North American Operations, and Speedsource Engineering and will be featuring a 14:1 low compression ratio, new two-stage turbocharger, a 5,200 rpm redline and compared to Mazda’s current-production 2.2L MZR-CD diesel engine, up to 20% reduction in fuel consumption, 20% reduction in internal engine friction and 10% reduction in weight.
On track testing will begin later this year. The actual Mazda model the SkyActiv racing engine will be installed on will be announced after the conclusion of the 2012 Grand-Am racing season. My guess is that we will see it debut on a Mazda 3, but only time will tell.
