This was our Mazda2 DJ's second outing on circuit but it's first at full competition pace. The car build is still ongoing so I'm expecting to see further improvements down the line. I've also been short of time in the driver's seat this season due to Covid19.
The Three Sisters Circuit is a very technical track with a mix of corners that are both tight and twisty with very little runoff so there wasn't much room for error.
The weather was kind being both warm and sunny for the duration of the trackday. this was especially usefull to gain the dry running data needed to continue the development of the car.
Once I was suited & booted in my race kit I completed the normal pre event checks which involved, fiddled with tyre pressures and ensuring everything was tightly fastened down. Now the car was ready to go out and hit the track.
I had orriginally planned to do just four or five hot laps per stint on circuit then one more in lap to cool everything down. Bearing in mind the car is still using standard eco road tyres and it is yet to have its new uprated rear anti-rear roll bar fitted the car did really well straight away. After the first session, I was getting into mystride and to grips with the car on track charictoristics too. As I'd not been able to drive the car really hard this year either it was good to get to know my car properly and apprciate the work that had gone into getting it this far.
The second & third session was really good the new Black diamond brakes were taking a hammering but handled the abuse with ease showing no signs of fade or overheating at all the more we pushed the better they seemed to got. The chassisof this car has always been good from factory but with teh addition of the braces I've fitted its becom brilliant, feeling very agile and eager to turn into the corners. As the car travels over off-camber corners it felt stable not wanting to step out at the rear, THe way in which it stuck to the track gave confidence to push harder raising my expeectations of where the limit of grip was.
The engine and gearbox felt good both eager to be used and rev'ed through its full RPM range and used quickly. The airbox and filter modification came into their own helpiing the car to pull hard at all times with no noticable flat spots int eh torque band.
Overall the car was well balanced being easy to drive & fun to handle with the car wanting to be driven quickly through the corners on this fun little circuit. In the end the limitting facter of this outing was as we suspected at teh start the tyres. With new rubber from our friends at Yokoharma I will be able to negate this issue and focus on the next challenge in september when I with my Mazda2 make my 2020 debut in the Javelin sprint at croft circuit.
In addition with the rear anti roll bar, the next set of exhaust upgrades and ECU tuning taking place as we head towards 2021 to give yet more power and improved drivability this car is set to become an awesome warm hatch, 👍👍🏁
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