 Much of the car’s dash is left intact. Click image to enlarge |
According to Mazda’s specifications this vehicle should weigh 1,067 kg (2,352 lb). The interior of my race car was, for the most part, fully intact. The driver’s seat was replaced with a racing bucket, the passenger seat was gone and replaced with a fire extinguisher. The rear seats and carpet were all removed, as well as some sound-deadening materials. Of course, a rather beefy roll cage was added for safety, but besides that, this vehicle was stock. According to the weight scales used at the track for regulations, this Mazda2 weighed in at 1,043 kg (2,300 lb spot on), including yours truly and my gear, suggesting that this vehicle actually weights closer to 952 kg (2,100 lb) when “dry.”
The Racing
After a few sessions of practice in the Mazda2, I felt fairly comfortable pushing it to the limits—the car really is easy to drive. Being accustomed to a much faster car on the track, though, meant that driving the Mazda2 was a learning process. Forget the brakes and keep your foot planted as any time momentum was lost it would take ages to get it back.
  Top: Squeezing into the driver’s seat. Bottom: scrambling to get the Mazda2 running again. Click image to enlarge |
This was my first outing at Circuit iCar, a fairly technical track. Because of its flat nature and vast amounts of pavement, however, there is room for some error, so many drivers use all of the asphalt to gain an advantage. I found this out quickly as my test laps had me in the 1:59 time frame while my competition was 2 to 3 seconds ahead of me—after a few laps behind them I realized that, unlike what I was taught in kindergarten, I should not stay within the lines!
My main rivals, two experienced Quebec drivers—Nick Wittmer, a two-time Super Class champion and Simon Dion-Viens, a three-time GT Champion racing a Corvette in Quebec—were behind the wheels of B-Spec class Honda Fits in front of me for both races. Try as I might, I could not keep up, although I managed to get within a second during qualifying.
Race one went off without incident as I drove with my right foot firmly planted on the accelerator for nearly the entire race, bringing home a third-place, podium finish for Team Mazda!
Race two on Sunday is where the racing gods reared their heads. Sunday morning practice was complete and I shaved yet another two seconds from my best times on Saturday—then, when I went to start the car once again, it would not fire. After some diagnostics, we begged another team that was not running their Mazda2 to allow us to swap alternators—to no avail. We tried various other things (including a computer, which didn’t help). My decision in the end was to put in a new battery and cross our fingers!
With all the commotion and last-minute preparation we forgot to fuel the car before the race, so my race turned into a fuel-saving exercise after about 10 laps since I was worried that we might not finish. In the end the car sipped its way to the finish line and I had myself another podium and champagne to celebrate a great weekend behind the wheel of a Mazda2 racer!
This weekend turned out to hold a lot of firsts for me—first time at Circuit iCar, first time truly racing door-to-door, and first time finishing on the podium with two third-place trophies to add to my collection of driving accolades.
The CTCC racing series is run extremely professionally and by a crew of dedicated individuals that have racing running through their blood. For more information on the CTCC, visit TouringCar.ca or watch their TV show on SportsNet!
Race 1:
Race 2:
