SOLID PERFORMANCE FROM MAZDA MOTORSPORT
June 10, 2010 by ProMotor
Kyalami hosted round four of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship this past weekend (5 June 2010) and Mazda Motorsport put in a solid performance.
Friday’s practice sessions weren’t without complications. George Smalberger (First Distribution) suffered from a badly damaged sparkplug, which effectively put an end to his practice opportunity.
Heinz Bose (MFC) went well during Friday’s practices and was able to set the fifth fastest lap during the third session. Whilst on the surface, this boded well for his qualifying chances, luck was again intervened. On his out lap, one of the shocks broke resulting in Heinz having to start two of the three races from the back of the grid in twelfth place.
George had a good qualifying session, setting a time over half a second quicker than his first outing at Kyalami in February, placing him seventh on the grid.
Heinz had a brilliant start to the race, diving past as many competitors as possible before the safety car was deployed to retrieve a stricken GTI. When the dust had settled, Heinz was already in sixth place and pushing hard. A lap later, Heinz was sitting pretty in fifth. He lost a position to Gary Formato (Ford Focus ST) the following lap, but regained fifth spot by passing championship runner-up, Gennaro Bonafede (VW GTI). Heinz held onto this position to the flag and set the second fastest lap of the race in the process.
George was having a good race and was leading a pack of three GTIs when his radiator cap broke, causing the 2.3 litre engine to overheat and blow the head gasket. This unfortunately side-lined George for the rest of the day.
The second race began with the top six finishers being inverted for the grid. This placed Heinz second. The pack behind were hungry for victory and Heinz decided not to get mixed up in the panel crunching and allowed Formato through. He fought hard for third place, but eventually Kieren Quarmby got through and took the position. Before Heinz was able to take a second breath, he had two more Ford STs on his rear bumper. He drove as hard as he could, but eventually tyre wear got the better of the Mazda and Heinz crossed the line in fifth place.
Heinz had another good start when the lights went out for race three. By the end of the first lap, he was up to sixth position. He held this position for all 12 laps, making the Kyalami outing the team’s most successful 2010 event so far.
All of the hard work appears to be paying off and the team can only gain momentum from here. Mazda Motorsport will now have more than two months to prepare the Mazda 3 MPS’ for the next round of the championship, which will be held at Phakisa on 14 August.
Mazda Motorsport would like to acknowledge the following partners: Mazda, MFC, Powerbrake, Supertech Auto, Leatt Brace, Etana Insurance, Autowiel Centurion, First Distribution and Sax Shocks
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