Mazda returns to the ALMS with B-K Motorsports and Sportsbook.com
 Guy Cosmo and Jamie Bach are ready for their close-up
By Kate Shaw
Photos © Kate Shaw and Craig Elliott
BRASELTON, Georgia (April 20, 2005) – Guy Cosmo and Jamie Bach can be forgiven if they are just a little bit breathless after the weekend at the Sportsbook.com Grand Prix of Road Atlanta they have just had. Eight years after Mazda’s last triumph in sports car racing, three weeks after their car was built in the Courage factory in France, and three days after Jamie Bach actually sat in the car in the seat just made for him, the No. 8 B-K Motorsports Mazda Rotary Powered LM P2 Courage took to the track and finished its first race P2 in class.

“We took the car out on the Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans,” explained the ebullient Cosmo in a press conference Saturday afternoon, “for eight laps – and the car was so well balanced and so quick, we all agreed ‘we’re ready to go!’ and the car was readied to be put on a plane to Atlanta. Then, Cosmo related, they had a little problem. “Our car missed its flight,” he reported, “due to a road accident between the track and the airport. So they flew it in to Chicago instead of Atlanta, and we all met it there and convoyed down [to Atlanta] with it!”

Wednesday was the first day the car went out for a full day of testing – and the first day that Jamie Bach actually sat in the car at all. “We did 90 laps on the car,” said Bach, “and I got to try out the brand new seat that had been made for me only Tuesday night. Everything was just the way we wanted it. And everyone who was within earshot knew a Mazda Rotary engine was on track again. It’s totally distinctive – nothing else sounds like that.”

The Courage Mazda might be a 3 day old wonder, but the B-K Motorsport Mazda team has been together much longer – they were a Star Mazda team which was upgraded to a fully assembled LM P2 racing program from top to bottom, a huge accomplishment in itself. Both Cosmo and Bach are graduates of the Star Mazda open wheel program, and Cosmo is a former champion in the series. “The Star Mazda series,” said Cosmo “is a very good growing ground for Mazda drivers. Jamie and I go way back, as well – I was his coach in Star Mazda, but we’re all equal now.”

Jamie is 21 years old and a good young driver who agrees that he has a few things to learn in the LMP2 ALMS class. “The hardest thing to get used to for me,” he said, “was the carbon fibre brakes. This was my first experience with them and I found it exciting getting my head around their awesome grabbing power.” But when race day came, it was clear that both Guy Cosmo and Jamie Bach had a really good handle on their brand new Yellow Bird. Combine consistent race laps, flawless pit stops and a reliable chassis and engine package, and you’ll reap immediate success to the series newcomers. Taking the podium with 2nd place in their first outing, Cosmo said, was truly a dream come true.

The team move next to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where, if you are so inclined, you can go over to Sportsbook.com and bet that the B-K Motorsport team of Cosmo and Bach will step it up one more notch and greet the ALMS fans and their happy team from the top step of the podium. If anybody can do it, they can!