This last weekend, June 9-10, I did crew work for a team of Spec Miatas(Larry Oka Racing Services) that participated in the Mazdaspeed Cup race at Laguna Seca. This race was run as a special support race for the CART Grand Prix of Monterey. The race will probably air on Speed Channel sopmetime soon but when I asked the Speed guys there they didn't know when. Basically, the Mazdaspeed cup was the biggest gathering and race of Spec Miata racers ever. The field consisted of approx. 70 cars from all over the country. And there were several Pro drivers from the Speed World Challenge Series participating in the race, including Roger Foo, Taz Harvey and Ken Dobson.
Ken Dobson won the race driving a car that was partially prepared by Larry Oka Racing Services. While Ken owns his own Spec Miata and participates in Regional events on occasion with it Roger Foo drove one our rental cars as did Taz Harvey. I worked with both of them this weekend helping to get them ready for the race. Both of them are super nice guys who are very easy to work with and talk to. Roger had a little trouble getting used to driving a rear wheel drive as most of his recent racing has taken place in front wheel drive cars like the Pro5 he drives in the Speed WC races. Taz had trouble with traffic and got a little beat up out there exclaiming, "Was there anybody out there that didn't hit me?" when he came in after the race. But he owns a body shop so it's all good. It was bit of an overexaggeration, but it was funny. Overall, it was a very clean race with only one real accident that caused a Yellow to come out, and that was just one car that got disabled. Considering the large field and the fact that there were a considerable amount of green drivers out there it wen very well. The racing action was very close and good throughout the race with a constant battle for first.
Our group(Larry Oka Racing Services) rents out Spec Miatas to people who wish to participate in Club Racing in the Spec Miata class and the owner. Larry Oka, was instrumental in putting together the specs for the class when it was developed.
I'm crewing for him so I can learn how to properly prepare and maintain a race vehicle and get a good introduction to Club Racing before I embark on my mission to build a Spec Miata racer of my own.
On a seperate note, I asked Foo about tricks and such that they use to get more power out of the Protege and he said he had no idea because Mazda basically takes care of all of that for him(Must be nice). He did mention that he knew that they had Sunbelt Performance build their race engines for them though. He said the P5 has more power than the Civic Si he ran quite successfully last year. He said the handling is good but needs to be tweaked and the brakes need to get a little better.
Hopefully I'll has some pics up for you to peruse in the next day or so.
Ken Dobson won the race driving a car that was partially prepared by Larry Oka Racing Services. While Ken owns his own Spec Miata and participates in Regional events on occasion with it Roger Foo drove one our rental cars as did Taz Harvey. I worked with both of them this weekend helping to get them ready for the race. Both of them are super nice guys who are very easy to work with and talk to. Roger had a little trouble getting used to driving a rear wheel drive as most of his recent racing has taken place in front wheel drive cars like the Pro5 he drives in the Speed WC races. Taz had trouble with traffic and got a little beat up out there exclaiming, "Was there anybody out there that didn't hit me?" when he came in after the race. But he owns a body shop so it's all good. It was bit of an overexaggeration, but it was funny. Overall, it was a very clean race with only one real accident that caused a Yellow to come out, and that was just one car that got disabled. Considering the large field and the fact that there were a considerable amount of green drivers out there it wen very well. The racing action was very close and good throughout the race with a constant battle for first.
Our group(Larry Oka Racing Services) rents out Spec Miatas to people who wish to participate in Club Racing in the Spec Miata class and the owner. Larry Oka, was instrumental in putting together the specs for the class when it was developed.
I'm crewing for him so I can learn how to properly prepare and maintain a race vehicle and get a good introduction to Club Racing before I embark on my mission to build a Spec Miata racer of my own.
On a seperate note, I asked Foo about tricks and such that they use to get more power out of the Protege and he said he had no idea because Mazda basically takes care of all of that for him(Must be nice). He did mention that he knew that they had Sunbelt Performance build their race engines for them though. He said the P5 has more power than the Civic Si he ran quite successfully last year. He said the handling is good but needs to be tweaked and the brakes need to get a little better.
Hopefully I'll has some pics up for you to peruse in the next day or so.
That MPV was pretty slick though. It had really nice seats.
