On Saturday the 30th of April, while the rest of Holland was celebrating Queensday, the second round of the Total Mazda MaX5 Cup was held. A sunny Zandvoort racetrack welcomed the drivers and their entourage. With a laid back atmosphere and great racing spirit it turned out to be one of the best race days in the cups history. For a full race report and championship standings visit the MaX5 Racing website
The season kicks off!!!
The Total Mazda MaX5 Cup 2011has finally started. With new teams, cars and a great vibe, the whole circus got in full swing on Sunday the 10th of April.
With a lot of new camera equipment to get my head around and many new cars and people to shoot I had my work cut out for me. Fortunately it was beautiful weather and I was very happy to be back behind the guardrails to shoot the action.
Besides photography I will be also shooting film during the season. A great new challenge and it gives a whole new look on the drivers perspective. One problem, it really makes me want to be in their seats!!! I definitely should hurry up with my track project!!! Until my car is track worthy again I will just focus on the shooting side of racing. Enjoy the photo’s and the first racing film of the season.
The new season of the Total Mazda MaX5 Cup is on it’s way!!! With plenty of new cars and teams I thought it would be a good idea to post a Spotters Guide. The images down below show all the entries of the 2011 season. Three of them are old shots as these cars were not participating in the session in which I took the images. Enjoy the Guide and if you are in the neighbourhood of one of the events, don’t hesitate to drop by for coffee and a lot of racing fun. All the dates can be found here!
See you in 2011!!!
My Miata is getting a pretty old Lady. With twenty years of cruising, travel and track abuse behind the wheels, the time has come to give the engine a proper rebuild. The money was in place, parts were about to be ordered but how do I travel around during the rebuild? Last weekend the whole situation took an unexpected turn as I got a great offer on another Miata.
As some expensive parts on my car, besides the engine, needed to be replaced as well, the car on sale had these already installed and they were in good shape. Hmmm…..what to do??? Sell one, get the other? That was not an option. A lot of changes had already been made to the red Miata to make it work both on the street as on the track. Unfortunately I can not keep two cars in front of my house due to limited parking permits. Fortunately a great solution presented itself and I now have an indoor space to keep one car dry during the year. Great stuff!!! I bought the blue Miata the same day. Finally I can get some work done and learn more on how to do some wrenching myself.
This is my new NA Miata. Like the other one it is one of the first ever made. The chassis code is even under the 5000 produced NA’s at that time. It still feels like I am cheating when I drive off and leave the red one parked. The wheels are way to big for the car and it’s handling. These 17 inch wheels will be replaced with soon with the spoked wheels which I run on the red car. Small other changes will probably follow as well to make it handle better and give it a bit more of an aggressive look.
As I do not have the budget to run a full season of MaX5 racing and I love taking the photo’s for the series, I run the occasional track day instead. For this reason the car was already transforming slowly into a track car. Now that the blue car has joined the family I can go a bit more crazy. Once this car has been turned into the track spec, that I have in mind, it has some more horse power and great throttle response.
The engine will get a full IRTB set up with AE101 throttle bodies and many other additions to make it a bit more aggressive and functional. It will remain street legal so I can enjoy it while running the hills surrounding the Nordschleife and other great roads as well.
Ever since I own a Miata it has surprised me how well these little cars handle on track. While being way down on power these cars fight off some pretty hardcore machines in the corners. This photo was taken a few years back by Michael from Autofotos.nl.
This is one of my favorite shots of my car running at the Zandvoort racetrack in Holland. I was doing a track day together with the guys from Team Zerospeed. An awesome day out. Here I am running together with Mike (R.I.P.) in his mighty S2000. Credits go out to Austin from Team Zerospeed for taking this image!
The full progress on this build we be published as soon as the project starts on PagodaGarage.com
Here is a little teaser I made for the 2011 Total Mazda MaX5 Cup, enjoy.
This teaser was made without any planning and is made of a few random frames which I shot during last season. At the beginning of this year I bought a camera slider from Indi System. The shots of the guys working on their racers were the first frames working with this slider. Great piece of kit for an awesome price. The race tracks featured in the teaser are Zandvoort in Holland, Spa Franchorchamps in Belgium and Oschersleben in Germany.
My thanks go out to the I.L. Motorsport team for supplying the onboard images.
On February 1st a new German online magazine called Maximum 5 was launched. This magazine features the lifestyle and fun around the worlds most popular convertible the Mazda MX-5. Focused on the MX-5 life in and around Europe, the first edition features: stories about travel, technique, and all the fun you can have when you bring out these little roadsters to a racetrack or a slalom cup. As this first issue looks back into the last season of our MaX5 Racing series, I was asked to provide the editors with several images out of my archives.
Currently the magazine is only in German but when it turns out to be a succes other languages will follow. Click on the link below to read the first edition of the magazine or go to the Maximum5 website. Don’t forget that it is an interactive magazine so clicking on links can get you anywhere from new products to cool race videos!
Here is a sneak preview of the film which is attached to the MaX5 Racing article:
During the last race of the Total Mazda MaX5 Cup of 2010 a German TV crew dropped by to shoot the series for the N24 TV channel.
With a whole day of filming in the pocket this is what the crew came up with to broadcast.
I am already looking forward to the 2011 season as we are expecting a record of 26 cars getting ready to hit the grids.
Only a few years ago we started the cup with just 3 participating teams. It is great to see what passion, some hard work and a lot of fun can bring in only a few years.
Here are some more pics that I took during another fun day of racing.
On May 1st 2010 Mazda Motor Nederland organized a giant pick nick party, in honour of the 20th anniversary of the MX5. More than 720 cars showed up from Holland, Belgium and Germany to participate in the celebrations.
Despite the heavy rain it was a great succes and Mazda did not hold back in their efforts to entertain the guests. At the entrance all the visitors received a 20th anniversary pick nick basket which could later be filled at the various catering stands.
Besides a packed parking lot filled with MX-5’s there was a lot to see at the venue.
Mazda brought out their Roadshow truck, the super light concept car and several MX5 racers made their appearance. Furthermore there was a great variety of new Mazda models present. The New Mazda 3 MPS and the fresh 20th Anniversary MX5 to name a few.
People could get their cars checked by mechanics and of course the usual merchandise stands were there with some serious cool bargains.
Unfortunately it was hardly possible that day to cruise around with the top down because Mazda also handed out several route books to enjoy after the pick nick was over.
Thanks to Mazda and happy birthday MX5!
Music:
Recalm intro from the Recalm album by Nomak.
Leo van der Meer is the team manager of Enjoy Racing who runs the Mazda Motor Netherlands outfit in the Total Mazda MaX5 Cup. To promote the team in his hometown Leiden, a reporter of local magazine LOS, would come and test drive his car at the Zandvoort racetrack. As the reporter would only write the article, Leo was in search of a photographer who wanted to provide LOS with a variety of pictures of the event. As I needed his racer for another event the day after a deal was made. I got to borrow the car and he would get my pics. The rest is history. Down below you will find the article written by Drees Koren and some extra photo’s from the day.
Matmiata 