A damp Sebring front straightaway after rain showers during load in day… Lots of history on this concrete!
Late last week, Mazda Motorsports participated in an IMSA sanctioned test at Sebring. We had a very productive couple of days testing under nice, sunny conditions in Central Florida. I was excited about the great weather because I think the conditions will be similar when we return in a few weeks for the 12 Hours of Sebring, assuming it doesn’t rain like last year!
It was a very well attended test, with 35 cars participating, so the track was always busy. It was an open-track test format, so it was green flag from 8am until lunch, then again from 1pm-5pm, so we were able to accomplish a variety of things, including a few on our “wish list,” if you will. It was a unique opportunity to run around with the other cars in our series, while still sticking to our own test plan and being able to do what we needed to do to accomplish our team’s goals.
Some of the items we worked on included the new Continental road race tire for DPis, which differed from our spec tire at Daytona. The tire was, even from the looks, quite different: it’s more rounded on the side shoulder than the square look of what we’re used to. That shape helps the footprint of the tire under heavy aerodynamic loads. Of course, the softer compound was a welcome addition, too! We certainly saw the impact the new tire had on our lap times throughout the two days.
With the introduction of the new DPi chassis this season, aerodynamics are different and much greater heading to Sebring this time, and we could certainly see that when it came time to go through the quick sections, like Turn 1.
A beautiful Florida sunset wraps up a productive couple of days.
Ultimately, we were able to work on the overall balance of our Mazda RT24-P during the test. Sebring is such a unique track, not only because of the bumps, but also because there are some important high-speed corners as well as critical low- and medium-speed corners, so having an overall good platform is really important. We were able to focus on these aspects, knowing that we are tuning not only for daytime running, but for when it really counts at night, too.
We also have a new teammate for our No. 70 Mazda. Marino Franchitti is joining Joel Miller and I for Sebring, and he brings a wealth of not just sports car racing knowledge, but specifically prototype competition. He was the overall winner at Sebring in 2014. Marino fit right into the team since he had driven with SpeedSource in 2012 with their RX-8 GT program at the Daytona 24. It’s great to have him with us, and I’m looking forward to working more with him when we head back to Sebring next month for the 12 Hours.
Wishing Rob Trollinger & team good luck next weekend at the COTA PCA races! I’ve been helping Rob in learning this fun & challenging circuit in the lead up to next week.