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that sounds awesome.
I'm debating whether I go locally to the Long Beach race or not. I didn't go the lats two years because it's a street circuit, they don't run all the classes at once so it's kind of a let down.
considering making the trek up to Mazda Raceway in May.
they looked AWESOME leading up to the last race (Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca). Mazda dominated all the practices and took the two two spots in qualifying.
As the race got underway, it was ALL Mazda. Roughly 20 minutes into the race they'd carved out almost a 14 second lead on the pack and everyone was racing for 3rd because they figured they couldn't catch them.
Well, then the #70 breaks down
and #55 has some issues in the Pits and they never recovered.
Finished a disappointing 5th or 6th.
the worst part is it was all for nothing because IMSA still hit them with a BoP
Mazda will head into next month’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Detroit with some added weight in its prototype, following the latest round of Balance of Performance adjustments.
IMSA has handed the Lola-based prototype a 15kg increase in minimum weight, effective for the Belle Isle event. It brings the car’s total weight up to 905kg.
It compares to the 950kg minimum weight for the Ligier JS P2 Honda, the only other P2 car competing full-time in the series this year.
The change comes in the wake of Mazda’s runaway performance in the Continental Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, which saw the pair of SpeedSource-run entries top the time charts in every practice session and sweep the front row in qualifying.
However, a series of mistakes and a mechanical issue prevented the team from finishing on the podium with either car.
No other BoP changes have been made to cars in the Prototype, GT Le Mans or GT Daytona categories.
Was their performance increase simply because of "Home Field Advantage", or because they finally have gotten familiar with the cars and the drivetrain?
What's up with the parts failures, though?
This seems to be a theme for at least one car to break in every race for the past couple years.
Always something different, and always something that cripples the car in a spectacular way.
the last few years it was because they were simply pushing that diesel too far in order to attempt to be competitive and it resulted in plenty of failures.
This year, it's a combination of things.
With the switch back to gasoline engines, Mazda ressurected an old motor they used to run in ALMS which was never really intended to compete at this level so they're having some reliability issues given that it's in a new chassis and being asked to put out more power than before.
Remember, this season is a stop gap for Mazda as they're jumping into the new DPi class next year so they just needed something to compete with until then.
I'm excited about the progress they've made the last two races as they seem to be finding good power and finally running with the pack.
Lets see how they do at Belle Isle
Watching the racing right now on FS1.
Currently the two Mazdas are in 3rd (55) and 5th (70).
Heard a blurb that they aren't running as fast as they could because they have to have the suspension higher to not rip off the ground effect package due to how bumpy the streets of Detroit are.
#70 got hit with a couple penalties due to overboost violations.
you could see the #55 must have turned down their boost because they were slower towards the end but wanted to make sure they finished strong
aannnnnddddd.......
Mazda gets their first podium finish of the season!
#55 finishes 3rd
Way to go Mazda!
And remember they are running with new weight penalties imposed after they ran 1-2 for a while during last race, imposed supposedly to "even out" the competition. It was fine when they weren't at the top, but once they got close to possible domination over the other competitors, folks got nervous. Same thing happened for years when the RX7 and RX8 racers started to win over race cars from the other bigger manufacturers and race favorites.
Last edited by gwilliams6; 06-05-2016 at 01:20 PM.
Mazda is celebrating their LeMans win 25 years ago with a gorgeous new livery for the 6 hours at the Glen.
It's cool to see the #55 in the iconic orange and green and the 70 has the same theme but in modern day Mazda racing colors.
another heartbreaking day for Mazda.
#55 was competing for a podium finish almost all day but with about 30 minutes to go an engine failure took them out of the race. #55 DNF
#70 finished 5th (but I think there were only 6 or 7 cars left running at that point)
another heartbreaking day for Mazda.
#55 was competing for a podium finish almost all day but with about 30 minutes to go an engine failure took them out of the race. #55 DNF
#70 finished 5th (but I think there were only 6 or 7 cars left running at that point)
Yeah, the Honda's were also non-competitive, after they qualified so well.
What's up with the 70 team, and making such simple mistakes that take them out of a race so early on?
And what part of the car can cause a misfire at low revs, but be perfectly fine at higher revs, for a while?
As soon as I heard that low rev misfire issue, I knew they only had about 15 minutes left before the engine went bye-bye.
I thought Honda would be the team to beat seeing how well they qualified and their performance early on in the race but once they dropped back it was like they never quite recovered.
#70 pit crew has been having issues all season. Weren't they the ones that cost Mazda @ Laguna Seca?
Not sure what causes low rev misfires on a that little piston motor but sadly I wasn't all that surprised with the outcome. We sort of predicted this months ago:
Originally Posted by Jedi54
the MZ motor is a proven one but in sprint races so can't be too surprised that it failed in an endurance race.
Originally Posted by Jedi54
With the switch back to gasoline engines, Mazda ressurected an old motor they used to run in ALMS which was never really intended to compete at this level so they're having some reliability issues given that it's in a new chassis and being asked to put out more power than before.
Would have been awesome to see them on the podium while sporting that throwback livery.
alas, it was not to be.
Quick turnaround before Canadian Motorsports so lets see what Mazda can do this weekend.
Since Mazda is not using the MZR engine in any current production vehicle, and this is a prototype series, why can't Mazda bring in a rotary race engine? Either the Renesis, or the new upcoming SkyActiv-R engine, and get some serious data out of the new motor?
Another question, since I'm on this stretch of thinking...
How bad is the SkyActiv-G engine if Mazda doesn't even want to attempt to use it in racing?
Bladecutter: If I remember correctly, the Rotary wouldn't have been legal in Prototype so they either had to switch back to a proven motor or take their chances developing a whole new engine since their SkyActiv-D was a total disaster...err....'retired'.
Now, the interesting part of this discussion is the last time I looked at the new DPi class rules (admittedly a few months back), it did appear as though a rotary engine could possibly be allowed. Maybe.
And with Mazda formally announcing the Mazda RX Vision with SkyActiv-R badging.... (anyone else see where I'm going with this??)
Mazda's jump into Prototype always seemed to be a temporary measure with eyes towards the new DPi class or possibly waiting for a new car to jump back into GTLM racing (can we say RX-7?) so they presumably didn't want to break the bank developing a new motor so I think that's why the MZ was used.
Heck, I wouldn't put it past them to do both if they wanted to get some data off a rotary and be competitive with a new SkyActiv-G motor in DPi.
Who knows but I expect next year could be a rather fun year for Mazda with new race cars on the horizon.
03-24-2016, 02:43 PM
