After the last test in Sebring a few weeks ago, I had confidence that the JDC team would find an issue with the chassis. A few days later, I received a phone call from owner John Church that the issue we encountered at Sebring had been found. To make certain our program was at its top level we decided to schedule another test for this past weekend at Motorsports Ranch near Dallas, TX. My schedule was to drive on Saturday and Sunday but arriving early on Friday, and with the threat of rain on Saturday, engineer Rick Cameron decided to do a few sessions on Friday afternoon. It was a rush to get on track but it proved to be beneficial to find the characteristics of the new track.

At the beginning of my second afternoon session rain began to fall on the circuit and did not stop until Saturday afternoon. The next day on track was very good for me as I was able to get over 100miles of rain practice. Rick Cameron used this time to try different rain settings and learn my style of rain driving so he could make the necessary adjustments. We made constant progress all day on the chassis and my driving in wet conditions. The following day was still cold and windy, but the track was dry for us all day. However, track time was limited to only 5 sessions due to other groups at the circuit. Again, constant progress was made to better the overall handling of the car and with every lap I was feeling more and more comfortable.

We ran into a similar handling issue from Sebring which was not resolved the last time we tested there. This time, in the last outing of the day, a few combinations of changes to suit the radial tire made for a fantastic balance in the overall handling. I feel real confident that this change will carry over to the Sebring circuit. The team and I are looking forward to the series opener at Sebring to show our hard efforts during this off season.

I have to thank the people at Mazda for giving me the opportunity to compete in the Pro Mazda championship series this year as well as K&N Performance Filter, Sparco, Classic Stone, and Sportsdrink for their continued support.

Joel Miller