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I will try to make at least one race this season. I was there for the 24-hours of Daytona way back in 1979 (as part of the Mazda folks, with my own RX7) when they shocked everyone with 5th and 6th place overall and 1st and 2nd in GTU. In the pits and paddocks across America at various venues many times over the years helping Mazda teams and taking photos as they racked up multiple wins and IMSA Championships in GTU, GTO, Camel Lights etc.
Loved being there for the GT Speedsource Championship tube-framed Three-rotor RX8s.
Now looking forward to Joest taking Mazda back to the top of the leaderboard.
Thanks Jedi54 for your posts !
Last edited by gwilliams6; 12-29-2017 at 11:48 AM.
Pretty sure I'll be at the Long Beach race and hopefully down in the pits with the team.
I don't think I've been excited about seeing Mazda race since the glory days of the SpeedSource RX8's.
it'll be a fun season if Mazda truly is competitive
i will be at the race on friday jan 26, unless the weather is going to suck. but it is always nice on friday. the bad weather usually makes the 24 interesting.
if the weather is going to be nice i might visit the roar..
sounds like a pretty bad wreck by Nunez but the car is rebuilt and they'll be ready to go for the ROAR.
Speaking of the Roar, I just looked at practice times for the first session and shockingly (sarcasm) Cadillac went 1,2,3,4 to lead the field.
Looks like Mazda didn't run the cars in the first session (not sure why) but hopefully we get some times out of them later today to see how the car will compete against the Cadillacs who are all running new motors.
Great write-up discussing the massiver overhaul the Mazda RT-24P undewent this past year.
The bold move by Mazda to withdraw its pair of RT24-P DPis from the IMSA circuit in July and send the cars through an exhaustive redevelopment process has reached its conclusion.
Based on the Riley/Multimatic Mk. 30 chassis, Mazda's premier RT24-P racing program was deconstructed by its engine and chassis partners during the second half of the year under the leadership of the new Mazda Team Joest.
All of the related systems within the chassis that influence the performance of the staccato 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine produced by AER were addressed. The chassis itself was also the subject of heavy revision at the front and back of the car, and the custom Mazda-themed bodywork manufactured by Multimatic went under the microscope....
Day practice sessions are over and Cadillac is still the fastest car out there.
I'm a little concerned with Mazda today but hopefully they get these cars back on track tomorrow
Both Mazda Team Joest cars turned their first laps of the weekend in Session 2 after missing the first test session of the weekend, although the No. 77 RT24-P only managed two laps late in the session while the sister No. 55 managed 43 laps
The #55 car was about 1.8 seconds off the pace of the leading Cadillac. Hoping to see them narrow that gap as they get more data and time in the car over the weekend.
I remember him over the years ,as I covered IMSA and other racing series as the race photojournalist for my newspaper and for the late great driver Al Holbert's Porsche 962 Lowenbrau teams.
I remember some heated and hard fought race battles between Pruett and ***** T. Ribbs when Ribbs was in his prime. Pruett could be a dirty racer and caused more than a few accidents for opponents , but I admired his talent and his incredible longevity.
Wish him the best.
Last edited by gwilliams6; 01-05-2018 at 05:54 PM.
Day practice sessions are over and Cadillac is still the fastest car out there.
I'm a little concerned with Mazda today but hopefully they get these cars back on track tomorrow
The #55 car was about 1.8 seconds off the pace of the leading Cadillac. Hoping to see them narrow that gap as they get more data and time in the car over the weekend.
i know that was only the first day of testing, but this is disappointing.
one of the slowest in class. not good.i was expecting more.
looking forward to the race on friday. weather is going to be in the upper 70s vs the 46 deg it was at the roar before.
came across the oddest rx8 i have seen in a while. 04ish, but it kinda had a lift kit under it. was sitting with about a 3 inch wheel to fender gap.. looking at the front of it it had some sort of motor swap..
Subscribed. A Company I will hopefully be working full time for in a few short weeks just bought their first Prototype and has about 15 GT3 cars, and about half a dozen GT4 cars at their disposal...
I am very eager to try to extend myself to be on the road with them, after I grow some roots into the company.
I am not sure if they are competing in the Weather Tech series or not. They run mostly PWC, and Single Make GT3/GT4 series (Porsche) The Prototype car is new for them though, and I know they really want to make their way into more series, and eventually work their way up to LeMans..
Well not exactly what we were hoping for with a best of 8th but not a terrible out of the box performance against the others. There were 4 different makes of cars running in the 1:37.2's so some pretty close groupings which is promising.
The good news is that they were able to keep getting quicker and quicker as the sessions progressed and didn't hit a technical performance wall. No, not as quick (or sorted to be fair) as the Caddy's yet but also with the major reset switching to Joest not bad either.
Nice article talking about how Mazda feels after their Roar performance
The debut of Mazda Team Joest was among the more anticipated aspects of last weekend's Roar Before the 24 at Daytona International Speedway. In its new guise led by team manager Ralf Juttner, the completely revamped Mazda RT24-P DPis and its surrounding program came away from the Roar with a decidedly different view compared to its results at last year's big Daytona test. The outlook within the team, according to veteran driver Jonathan Bomarito, is one of measured optimism.
"We came away wanting more speed, but overall, we were pretty happy with how everything went for us," he told RACER. "Keep in mind this is virtually a brand-new car, the team running the cars are new, most of the drivers are new, and for our first time out together with everyone else at the Roar, we left feeling positive about almost everything that took place. There's more to come, but overall, it was a lot different than how things went for us last year."
Every new team and new car has a learning curve. I just hope Joest hasn't signed on to be a backrunner to the Cadillacs all season. That would not justify kicking Speedsource to the curb. There may be just too little in the Mazda engine to equally compete.
Well not exactly what we were hoping for with a best of 8th but not a terrible out of the box performance against the others. There were 4 different makes of cars running in the 1:37.2's so some pretty close groupings which is promising.
The good news is that they were able to keep getting quicker and quicker as the sessions progressed and didn't hit a technical performance wall. No, not as quick (or sorted to be fair) as the Caddy's yet but also with the major reset switching to Joest not bad either.
Swoope you headed to the 24 I hope?
Thanks for those links Jedi, good stuff!
As always i will be at the track on friday.. weather permitting..
have a few friends with me.. cocktails will be involved..
Wish I could be there this year. Have been part of six 24-hour races there in the past,with Mazda and with Porsche. Family commitments prevent me going this year. Hoist a few beers for me, ok.
Last edited by gwilliams6; 01-16-2018 at 04:55 PM.
BoP update!
I emphasized the parts I thought were interesting to those of us rooting for Team Mazda
The Cadillac DPi-V.Rs have been slowed following a series of Balance of Performance adjustments made ahead of next weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Changes have been made to multiple cars in all three categories in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with IMSA having issued the revised BoP tables on Thursday.
The Cadillac DPis, which dominated the pre-season test, have been hit with a 0.6mm smaller air restrictor, bringing it down to 31.6mm x2 in size.
Adjustments in fuel capacity (+1 liter) and refueling restrictor (+0.5mm) have been made to compensate for the Cadillac’s power loss, ahead of its first race with its revised 5.5-liter V8 powerplant.
While the Nissan Onroak DPis have been given a power increase at the mid-to-high range, Mazda’s RT24-P has been handed a slight reduction in turbo boost pressures, although now permitted to run a maximum of 8600 RPM.
Most importantly, though, the Mazda DPi can shed a further 15kg in weight, bringing the Multimatic-built car down to 915kg, as the lightest prototype in the class.
Additionally, aero adjustments have been made to the Acura ARX-05, Mazda and Nissan DPis, although with fuel capacity changes for the Acura and Nissan..
Look, lets get this out of the way: Not sure I like the idea of punishing Cadillacs for being too fast, I always prefer to see them lessen restrictions on the lower cars to give them an opportunity to get faster and compete with the leaders, especially this early on in the season where the Cadillacs could have just gone all out and everyone else didn't. Who knows.
As for the Mazdas, interesting move lowering max boost PSI and giving them a higher RPM. If that were a Rotary, I'd be really excited, on this little MZR motor, not sure how that will play out BUT the weight reduction could be huge for them.
Either way, I think we'll find out a lot about everyone's speed but more importantly, can these cars survive the 24 without grenading vital parts of the car.
I'm excited for the race.
What are everyone's thoughts?
Swoope: what's the weather looking like?
12-28-2017, 06:59 PM
