Mazda2 | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

March 29, 2020October 20, 2023

B-Spec Racing

The following post is from a race prep shop Chris Taylor Racing Services out of Texas. Chris purchased our Mazda 2 B-Spec car we built back on 2012 and it is still out racing and winning after a decade of use on the track.

The first race of the 2020 SCCA Hoosier Super Tour was at Sebring International Raceway in Florida. It would be my first time to drive this iconic track, and to say I was excited was an understatement. As is my typical fashion, I watched a few videos on YouTube, made a few notes on what I thought would be important corners to figure out, but otherwise went wholly unprepared. Going with me would be Kent Carter in his Mazda2 that got a full front end rebuild halfway through the 2019 season after he loaned it to somebody, and Tony Roma rented my blue Ford Fiesta, while I borrowed one of my customer and friends Jon Over’s Mini Cooper.

Before we get to the weekend, a little back story! Jon and I drove his Mini in a fun enduro at MSR-Houston in December, and it was there driving my red Fiesta in one stint and the Mini in the other, and watching the Honda’s and Fiesta around MSR that I decided the Mini was taking an automatic rifle to a knife fight… the car was so smooth and planted that I figured going to what everybody says is the bumpiest track on earth would make up for any shortcomings the car may have. And given that I was able to chase down and pass the 2019 National Champion in the car at MSR-Houston, and it didn’t have the new header, I really thought I’d be able to shine at Sebring!

So off we go, with a little detour through Houston to pick up some Spec Racer Ford’s to deliver to Sebring… but not before the trailer frame decided to crack over the rear axle and set the trailer wall on the tires! After a 6 hour wait and an amazing mobile welder, I was back on the road, even arrived in Sebring just a few hours after load-in opened! Kent and I signed up for the Thursday test day, having never driven Sebring, while Tony did his practice on iRacing. Joining us in B-Spec for the weekend were Joe Gersch (who skipped the test day as well but did this race last year) and a newcomer to B-Spec but a local to Florida, Bob Iverson. Bob was kind enough to let us follow the first 2 practice sessions and speed up our learning process, then he handed the car over to his coach for the third session. While Terry Borcheller drove off into the sunset in Bob’s Honda Fit, I was able to run under the track record in my third session on old scrub tires!

Friday comes and our morning practice is good but the track feels dirty and slow, I run an OK time but not what I was doing the day before. The afternoon qualifying is unpleasant with all the traffic, and it seems with the Prod cars any time we try to come up with a Plan to get good laps, the old adage attributed to many but originally from Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength” continues to rear its ugly head for us. I’m able to put the Mini on the pole, but not run laps like I was on Thursday. This part of the plan is still OK as I figure we’ll be able to run faster times Saturday morning with cooler temps as long as the track is clean.

Helmuth, or Murphy, or whoever it is rears their head Saturday morning and a small downpour occurs during AM Qualifying, so not a single one of us in B-Spec goes out. Which is nice, because I still get the pole! My first EVER, much less at a Super Tour! I’ve always said I’m not a qualifier, I’m a racer… but apparently I can run a quick lap every now and then! Thankfully the race is dry, we’re doing a split start so we’ll have a few laps before we catch the backmarker Prod cars, and I’m stoked. As I’m new to the Mini I’m still learning the sweet spot in the rev range, and I was in the wrong gear and wrong RPM for the start, which makes for an exciting one. I slot in behind Bob out of T1 and plan to just push him away from the other cars so we can get a good gap and battle it out at the end. Finishing the first lap I get a hell of a run out of 17 and clear Bob into T1, but going into T7 I touch the rumbles inside and the RF axle snaps! I spend the rest of the race watching from outside the guardrail in T9 as Joe and Tony duke it out after Bob had a tire go down, with Joe ultimately getting the win! Kent rounded out the podium.

Once I confirm its an axle, the odyssey of finding one in central/western Florida begins. First a parts house just up the road says they have one. When we get there it turns out it’s not for a 1.6L, hatchback, 5 speed. Evidently Mini uses a different axle for everything, I think even different color cars have different axles! Thankfully Kent was my chauffeur and drove and helped find the proper axle at a 24 hour Autozone warehouse/parts counter near Tampa, or I’d have not raced Sunday! With the proper axle in hand we got back to the track at 11pm, and I decided then I’d just wake up early and put the axle in in the morning.

With a new axle and a bit of apprehension, we take the green Sunday and my cousin and his son are there to cheer me on! The announcers got word of our axle adventures and talked about me at length as I drove away from the field, Bob dropping out with an engine issue after a few laps. With my first Super Tour win well in hand, I come upon a Prod car that I’m lapping for the SECOND TIME, unfortunately in a standing yellow zone (this would be the second lap we’ve passed this standing yellow), and he decides to come nearly to a complete stop before the incident. Not wanting to pass under yellow, I come to a nearly complete stop in Turn 16 too, which leads onto the back straight, and now Tony and Joe have been able to exit 16 at full tilt and overtake me. The B-Spec cars are not powerful and it takes me a lap to get my momentum back, and thankfully as we go through 17 and onto the front straight no white flag so I’ve got 2 laps to get by both of them! I follow for most of that lap and get a huge run out of 17 the next lap coming to the white flag, past Tony, and what-the-holy-hell-why-are-they-waving-the-checkered as the overall leader passes us at the line… because I guess his 15 second lead over 2nd place wasn’t enough to let us finish our race.

So it was a rough and tumble weekend, but I came away with a track record, a 2nd place, and my customers brought home 3 trophies! So while my weekend generally sucked, it was highly successful and a good way to kick off the 2020 season!

Full race video from Sunday is above and track record lap are posted on my YouTube, check ’em out and give me a subscribe if you like hatchback / pizza delivery car content! Some cool postcards, B-Spec shirts and G-Loc Brake Pads are for sale through this and my other website, tracksideatthecircuit.com — pick up some sweet B-Spec merch today!

Ciao

Chris

January 13, 2016September 22, 2020

Daytona International Speedway and a Mazda 3

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.

corksport-mazda-2-race-car — 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 15^th 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 15^th, 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.

November 5, 2014October 23, 2024

Let’s Do This, Mazda: Mazda 6 Coupe, CX-3, & Mazdaspeed 2016

Let’s keep this simple. You want the juice, the news, the lowdown, the gossip on everything Mazda….

Well good news! We have some great rumors for you here, and a little dose of truth. Let’s take a dive.

Mazda CX-3

First up, the Mazda CX-3. This lightweight, compact crossover should be going toe to toe with the Nissan Juke and other compact SUVs. Rumor has it that it should be powered by the 2.0L SkyActiv, likely the same one in the Mazda3. To be clear, this little gem won’t have to be waited on for very long. The CX-3 is set to release next spring, and better yet, debuting at the LA Auto Show in less than a month. Yep, we should have our hands on this guy sooner than later!

CX5-Mazda-Release-CorkSport-Car-Show-Nissan-Juke

2016 Mazdaspeed

Then again, you probably didn’t come here for news on a compact crossover that has killer gas mileage, room, and the practicality of a sedan/suv/compact car blended into one. You’re probably here for this: the 2016 Mazdaspeed. Though there still aren’t any confirmed dates or models, we keep getting “insider rumors”. According to Motortrend and their “insider”:

“What gets added to the lineup in addition to those cars is the interesting bit… the company plans to focus heavily on development of niche products, or in other words, special editions.”

Special editions? Sounds like Mazdaspeeds to me! Any other “special editions” you can think of? Nope. I’m sold. Motortrend also states that a 2016 Mazda 6 Coupe will be released (see their rendering below).

Mazda-6-Motortrend-Coupe-Mazdaspeed-2016-Release-Rumor-CorkSport

Hatchbacks

As exciting as a coupe is, we tend to be bigger fans of Hatchbacks, specifically hatchback Mazdaspeed 3’s. So what does Motortrend think we have in store?

“Another important niche model is also planned for 2016: the much-anticipated Mazdaspeed3. This hot hatch will employ a 2.5-liter Skyactiv G turbocharged gasoline engine pumping out more than 300 hp and incorporating a new lightweight all-wheel drive system. To add even more spice to the company’s lineup, we can also expect to see Mazdaspeed versions of the Mazda2 and Mazda6.”

Wait, what? Mazdaspeed 3, Mazdaspeed 2, and Mazdaspeed 6? I’m all ears.

But will it happen? Looking at Mazda’s past, they certainly have touched most of their smaller cars with the hand of Mazdaspeed. Protege, MX-5, the 3 and the 6 all have been turboed and “Mazdaspeedified” before, so doing the 3 and 6 again is a no brainer…

But the 2? I think it’s highly possible. Most likely, the Mazda MX-5 will get a Mazdaspeed version before any of the other cars, and then they’ll dump the same engine in the new Mazda 2. Why not?

Whatever Mazda decides to do, we’re pumped. Looking at the models they have cranked out in the past 2 years have been impressive and we are very excited for more models and specifically their “niche…special editions”.

Zoom-Zoom

Sources: Jalopnik | MotorTrend