Sebring race week is here, and this will be the third time our SpeedSource Mazda Prototype has competed at the 12 Hours of Sebring. It’s such an exciting chance to race in the beautiful spring weather in sunny Florida. We’re also excited about the pace that we had in Daytona, along with the time we’ve had to continue developing our new engine package, the MZ2.0T.
Also new for Sebring this year will be our co-driver Keiko Ihara from Japan; she will be the first female driver with our program. Keiko is a very experienced sports car driver and has competed in the World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of LeMans. She is also an advocate of the FIA Women in Motorsports Commission, which Mazda Japan supports. You can read more about Keiko in this announcement from Mazda Motorsports.
To help Keiko get more comfortable with both our Mazda Prototype and Sebring, we were fortunate enough to utilize the “DIL” simulator owned by our technical partner and chassis supplier, Multimatic. The simulator is at their training center in Toronto, and it is state-of-the-art, allowing drivers to get the most realistic experience possible without actually being in the car at the track!
The simulator includes math models that characterize proper grip levels of the track, tires, and any other setup changes that a team might make, such as spring rate, damper changes and even preload and differential adjustments.
After two days of rigorous testing, we traveled to the SpeedSource shop, where we created the proper seat inserts to make all of the drivers comfortable – there is a one-foot difference between the tallest and the shortest drivers in our No. 70 Mazda!
A tremendous amount of preparation has gone into both this opportunity for Keiko and the upcoming race. I know the team is excited about the race, and I’m looking forward to making my third 12 Hours of Sebring start! Be sure to tune in to Fox Sports 1 or IMSA.tv Saturday morning at 10:30 for race coverage.