Sonoma, Ca March 21st – Ken Dobson, piloting the #3 COBB Tuning Mazdaspeed3, wins the opening round of the USTCC. Mckenna Sport is a new team formed by Ken Dobson and Greg Garneau unloaded for the race weekend with a new car and hopes of a good showing. The car made its way to the track with just fourteen miles on it and decked out with some trick new racing components. Tri-Point Engineering suspension arms improve the suspension geometry and camber to make the best use of the tires, Moton 3-way adjustable dampers help to keep all four tires stay firmly in touch with the track and the COBB Tuning AccessPORT gives the MAZDASPEED3 a big boost in power to help make those tires earn their keep.

“With a few practice sessions we made several chassis adjustments and fine-tuned the handling very quickly,” said Ken Dobson, driver of the MAZDASPEED3. He continued by adding that when it came to tuning the engine, the AccessPORT made the job very easy. “With all the attributes the system has to offer we had a lot of confidence in changing boost levels and dealing with some of the complex issues the factory ECU has for normal street driving that are not ideal for track driving. The logging feature was a great look into the engine’s performance while on track that let us know that everything was healthy and happy.”

After finishing the qualifying race on Saturday in 2nd position, Ken was looking forward to the standing start format for the main race on Sunday. It was going to be an exciting event without ever having practiced a standing start in the MAZDASPEED3. When the flag dropped, Ken’s natural driving talent took over and he launched the car perfectly, slotting into second following pole sitter Curt Simmons into turn two. After a few laps of lead follow which saw Curt and Ken open up a large gap on third, Ken made his move to take over the lead. After a clean pass on Curt, Ken and the MAZDASPEED3 never looked back, and when the checkers flew, Ken had the race easily in hand.

In the end the team loaded up their “no longer new” AccessPORT powered MAZDASPEED3 with a whopping one hundred and eighty miles on the odometer. With more work on the horizon, the team hopes to ensure more victories in the up coming events. The show moves on to Thunderhill Raceway in Willows California for round two on April 24th-25th. Stay tuned to hear how McKenna Sport fares in the next USTCC race…