MOTORSPORT’S LINK BACK TO THE BRAND
...MORE MAZDAS ROAD RACED
THAN ANY OTHER BRAND
You’ve probably heard the slogan,
but in fact it’s not just that more
Mazdas are raced than any other
brand, but staggeringly more than
all other brands put together.
According to data from the SCCA, in
2014 there were 19,297 total Club
Racing entries. Of those, 11,121
were in Mazda powered vehicles.
That’s 58 percent of all entries for
Mazda compared to 42 percent
shared by 15-plus other car brands.
BATTERY TENDER GLOBAL
MX- 5 CUP PRESENTED BY
BFGOODRICH TIRES
Boasting an all-new, factory
developed MX- 5 Cup car, the
Battery Tender Global MX5 Cup
presented by BFGoodrich Tires kicks
off in April with the first of six events
at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca,
April 29-May 1. The MX- 5 Cup car is
the first ever factory race-ready
MX- 5 Miata produced by Mazda
Motorsports. More than 80 orders
were received for the $53,000
gas-and-go car follo wing its
announcement in October 2015.
The Global MX- 5 Cup is just part of
the ongoing strategy that Mazda
Motorsports has developed to make
an easy and accessible entry point
to professional racing.
they are definitely on the small end. Over
the past few years, their share of the
domestic road car market has hovered
around the two percent mark, yet
among active racers within the SCCA,
that number quadruples to an eight
percent market share. That’s quite a
validation from a group you would
expect to be the most picky. As a result,
Mazda has cultivated a strong
contingent of leading peer-influencers
extolling the brand’s virtues among
potential car-buyers.
Higher up on the pyramid are the
hundreds of youngsters every year who are
getting a shot at their dreams of making it
as a pro racecar driver, thanks to Mazda’s
prodigious backing, both operationally
and financially, of the Mazda Road to Indy
and Road to 24 programs. Certainly the
link between an open-wheel racecar and
production road car is harder to find, but
as Doonan noted, it’s an important
extension of Mazda’s commitment to the
human aspects of the sport.
Therein lies what differentiates
Mazda from other brands. Through
generous, yet well-earned
scholarships, they enable the dreams
of young drivers distilling the very
essence of hashiru yorokobi. Namely,
that the journey is as important as
the destination. Many of the drivers
who go through the system may end
up driving for other brands during
their career, yet Mazda will always be
part of their story.
The Prototype class program in the
Weather Tech Championship is the tip of
the pyramid. Now in its third year, the
project has shown signs it can compete
for wins. It’s here where another
Japanese phrase is used – jinba ittai. That
translates as “horse and rider are one” –
or, in this case, “car and driver are one.”
Winning races at the top level brings
notoriety and acclaim that are important,
but more than that, the synergy of car
and driver and, to be fair, the engineers,
as one becomes the rallying point for the
company as whole.
Indeed, the main hallway of Mazda’s
North American HQ is lined with
photographs of Mazda Motorsports
current and past exploits, proving the
spirit of hashiru yorokobi is real.
More than 50
drivers and cars
spanned the Mazda
Road to Indy ladder
in 2015, shown here
on front straight at
the Brickyard.
(Below) From older
to newer, modified
to relatively stock,
the MX- 5 Miata is a
mainstay of SCCA
Club Racing.
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