Racer - Spring 2016

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.