During the last several months, Mazda Motorsports has focused on creating a flourishing national class in SCCA and NASA racing for the NC Miata (third generation; 2006-2015). As the first two generations Miata (the NA and NB) make up the most raced class in the country, Spec Miata, Mazda Motorsports now sees the opportunity to grow the NC Miata to new heights.
“It takes all key stakeholders working towards one common goal,” commented David Cook, Business Development Manager for Mazda Motorsports when discussing its strategy for the creation of a spec national class for the NC Miata. “The goal is simply to build enough NC Miata race cars to a spec that is reliable, affordable, tech-able, and fun to drive to encourage their participation. And this will include more power than the typical NCs have.”
How the goal is achieved, though, is not simple.
“We first needed to identify where we are starting from – how many NCs are in existence – and quantify how many need to be competing within a specific time frame,” continued Cook. “We have a good count on the number of the NC pro builds that made their way into club racing once the ND (4th generation) Miata came to market. We also know how many and where the Skip Barber-owned NCs went when they were divested. On area was Spec MX-5 Challenge (pictured above), which is a series that competes on both the east and west coasts, offering more than $100K in prizing, and in which we see operating as the halo series for the future spec national class in NASA and SCCA. And, of course, there are many NCs competing in other classes in club racing, specifically SCCA T4 and some in NASA’s ST5. But accounting for all these NC race cars is just the beginning, and certainly not enough to achieve critical mass for a national club racing series.”
Mazda Motorsports then gathered information about the road car market, finding many NC Miatas (2006-2015 convertible with a manual 6-speed transmission) that would be ideal to convert to the race car spec could be purchased for $5,000 or less. One could find a 5-speed manual transmission donor car and purchase the 6-speed transmission and shifter from Mazda Motorsports to make the change (along with the rest of the NC spec build kit).
As the road car prices have come down over the last few years, plus all the NC race cars that have made their way into club racing, the time is right for Mazda to create its strategy to give the NC the boost it needs.
“We are very fortunate over the years to be the market leader in motorsport in North America, which gives us competitive advantages,” commented Cook. Our long-established Mazda Team Support Program provides unique and superior support to racers with the focus on reducing the barriers to racing entry and continued participation via contingency awards, parts support including pricing discounts on stock and competition parts, technical support, and more. We have the pillars built, so it’s a matter of bolstering them with the right focus.”
To achieve critical mass, Mazda Motorsports’ focus has been on:
- Working with the sanctioning bodies to create the racing opportunity
- Selecting the right partners for the build kit and continued support
- Offering very affordable build kits – Rewarding early adopters to create momentum
- Offering very affordable pricing on ongoing parts orders – Rewarding early adopters to create momentum
- Rewarding on-track results through a robust contingency awards program
In Creating a Spec National Class: NC Miata – Execution, we drill down on each of the areas of these five key areas of focus.