The Friday practice session to kick off the CASC Road Racing season was an entirely new experience for Daniel Demaras. Not only was it his first session in a Mazda Miata, but it’s also a new team. After three seasons with Vallis Motor Sport in the Formula 1200 paddock, Demaras joined the Mortimer Racing Group during the off season for an assault on the Miata Canada Cup.
Practice sessions are critical to address issues before race day. The newly christened No. 12 MagiSeal Miata raced in a regional series at Calabogie Motorsports Park last year, where it took multiple wins and podiums. But mechanical gremlins can arise over the winter that only become obvious when on track, and an uncooperative fuel pump in the Mazda did cause Daniel to miss a practice session after lunch. Nothing the Mortimer Racing team couldn’t handle though.
Some consider Miata Canada Cup to be the closed-wheel equivalent to Formula 1200. They’re both cost-effective, grassroots motorsports. The lightweight cars are powered by small displacement four-cylinder engines (1.2L flat-four versus a 1.8L inline four) but by comparison, the Miata is much bigger.
While a F1200 car weighs 1,075 lbs, a Miata Canada Cup car tips the scales at 2,400 lbs. After some time behind the wheel, Daniel commented how much heavier the Miata felt going through the high-speed Turn 1, and the required changes to his driving style.
At the tail-end of the 8-hour track day, Daniel got in a 45-minute session. He was the first car lined up in pit lane to go out on track, and nearly an hour later he was the only driver left on track. That’s nearly twice a race distance, but all that seat-time provided the opportunity to applied all he learned throughout the day. First thing on Saturday morning, the Miata Canada Cup cars would go directly into qualifying and Demaras was ready.
Fun! Fun! And more fun!
Yup! As they say, a bad day at the track is better than a good day at work. And this was a good day!