The dirt tracks are known for their tiny board cars with huge wings, but what about the other loose-surface racing bureaucracy? Why rallycross?
Peter Dozeman owned a track vehicle and circular track structure business and implemented it in the most eye-catching Mazda Miata SCCA rallycross I’ve ever seen. In case you haven’t noticed, there are wings. The wings are big.
And yes, they’re functional.
“I like changed elegance because there are very few rules,” Dozeman told The Drive. “And I read the rule book.”
There are 11 regulations for the modified rear propulsion class, and this eleventh rule has been added to explain (and allow) everything Dozeman did with the Miata last year.
“The aerodynamics are limited,” Dozeman continued. “It’s very open. You can do whatever you want.”
The Miata’s first race in its existing specification took place at the SCCA National Rallycross Championship last weekend, where Dozeman took the moment position in the changed rear wheel category and his co-driver Brianne Corn won the class.
Dozeman had been driving the Miata for 4 years and had been running with Corn in the car for a while. “It’s reliable and very simple to paint,” he said of the car. Nor was it Miata’s First Race at the SCCA Nationals, even though it was the first time the car itself attracted more attention than its Nationals won.
It was Corn who, in spite of everything, was hit in the wings. Dozeman asked for an English aerodynamics that would not arrive in time for the national championships, but remembered Corn’s old Class A-Mod autocross driver who had a lot of aerodynamics.
Dr. Bob Woods, of the University of Texas at Arlington, had manufactured the wings of the A-Mod car, so the duo committed to the aerodynamic Miata. Dr. Woods leads the Formula SAE program there, and academics helped design and prototype the Miata’s wings. They may simply not be checked in a wind tunnel, however, they had to use fluid dynamics computational systems that can simulate the performance of the wings in real life to verify other adjustments.
So it’s the UTA autoclave to the rescue. The FSAE team not only delivered on time, but also distributed 14 command pages on how to install the wings. They delivered a complete kit, with precise spare parts and commands on where and how to install the wings. They even added adjustment commands.
The wonderful thing about massive wings is that the faster you go, the more wonderful they manage to throw the car on the floor and the faster you can go.
“Once the aerodynamics begin to be consistent with about 40 or forty-five miles consistent with one hour and up to 60 or 70 [mph], it is intended to generate about 500 pounds of support,” Dozeman said.
“It’s pretty well balanced, ” he continued. “I wish I had a little more in the front so that my turn doesn’t move forward [forward, as well as understeer], but we didn’t touch it all weekend because it was the first time we ran. It happened well enough as we did. You don’t have to go back and make a change. So we leave it alone according to your instructions.”
Beneath the biggest wings I’ve seen at a rallycross event, this is largely what you’d expect in a high-end rallycross building. The equipment got rid of every and every spare pounds possible, reducing the car’s total weight to approximately 1650 pounds. The protective ring, which is not mandatory for rallycross, was deserted in favor of the roof and the rest of the car’s pillars with 3M foam. This roof is now permanently constant with epoxy and rivets, there is no heavy and tedious hardware here.
The newly built engine, built through Rossini Racing Engines, is a 155-horsepower atmospheric structure with superior compression than the original. The engine itself receded about five centimeters.
It remains a rallycross structure for the rugged SCCA Nationals, so there are nine inches of front and rear suspension travel. They used Keisler Automation’s round rubber pad bearings, as rubber pads would not allow them to have the amount of suspension joint they wanted. Besides, rubber has more freedom of action than they didn’t want. Robby Briley also built a Set of Bilstein Surprise Dampers for car compatibility.
The brakes were Wilwood stirrups, but the rotors and top of the shape were lighter traditional parts. As a result, the braking formula weighed about 50 pounds less than the action. It’s about team dynamics.
Even the wrapper was a last-minute job. One of the two inhabitants involved with the works of the Dozeman fence fell with COVID-19 and may not have done so. Therefore, Dozeman, his son, and a few others have learned to do it themselves. They chose the Pixar’s Cars Strip Weathers livewer because getting the kids interested in the race was vital to the team, and the team has a lot of respect for Richard Petty, who expresses the Strip character. They bought some packing curtains for Miatas and a piece to perceive it and Miata’s curved frame was not easy to wrap, but they did.
“There are many other people who have helped us,” Dozeman said, noting the long list of thanks he did for the car’s wonderful announcement message. “It’s been five years.”
The race was tight: Brianne underwent a very expensive run in the category after breaking the car differential, in which case they believe it was the clutch that failed. After seeking to install two new clutches in the car, they learned that the other had failed. They were fortunate that Miata’s road racing store, Jesse Prather Motorsports, was just five miles from the Rallycross Nationals site and sold them a new alternative.
They reached the last day of the race weekend after 3 hours of sleep, while Peter led to two cones, which necessarily gave Brianne the victory. However, the finalist of the third place did not stay entirely in the dust, which makes the good look of such a competitive class.
That said, I’d like to try it.
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