MONTEREY, Calif. (Aug. 17, 2026) – The 2026 Rolex Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca featured Japanese marques and Mazda pulled out all the stops by bringing the 1991 Le Mans winning Mazda 787B to North America’s most prestigious gather of historic race cars. It wasn’t only about the cars though; it was about the people who have brought the ‘Never Stop Charging’ attitude to Mazda for decades and the fans who beg for the sounds of a screaming rotary engine.
787B on Tour
This is the first time the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans winning 787B has been on U.S. soil since 2011. The car didn’t come directly from Japan, instead it came from France, where it had been participating in the Classic Le Mans. Now it’s on its way back to Japan and it could be another decade or more before it returns.
Long v. Long
It was Tom Long in a Mazda 787B versus Patrick Long in a Porsche 962 for a while during Friday’s qualifying race. The two pro drivers found themselves trading positions in the early laps of the Group 10 contest. Had they not been in easily recognizable historic race cars, you might have confused it with a present day IMSA race.
“Patrick [Long] and I, we have had the opportunity to race together quite a bit, and this is more the fun factor of being able to say, ‘hey, my car can do this, and my car can do that.’ It was fun getting a chance to pass him, and then the next lap he repassed me, so we had a great time,” Tom Long said. “I have a good memory with him at Long Beach in a similar scenario; he was racing a 962, and I was in the 792P. Afterwards, we were on the podium, and while we’re walking away, we had a nice chat. It was more friendly than it was competitive.
“You do always have that competitive juice flowing at some level. No matter if this is a historic event compared to a pro race. There is that balance of knowing that this is an irreplaceable piece of history, but also you have that competitive spirit, and you want to represent Mazda and yourself well.”
Mr. Le Mans
His name might not be as familiar outside Mazda circles, but Yojiro Terada is a big part of the 24 Hours of Le Mans record books. Terada logged 29 starts between 1974 and 2008 at the legendary event. This puts him third on the list of most race participations, only behind Henri Pescarolo and Bob Wollek. His Le Mans career includes four class victories, all of them in Mazdas.
Terada often drives the 1991 Mazda 787B for demonstrations at events across the globe, enabling him to see the love for the rotary all over the world.
“I’m not so surprised. This is very normal,” Terada said of the crowds gathered to hear the 787B warm up. “This rotary engine is a very beautiful engine. This sound is very big, but beautiful. Other engines sound big, maybe the same decibel, but the rotary is such a nice sound.”
Sweet Symphony
Mazda, with assistance from Mazda Heritage Collection operators Flis Performance, brought five cars together for a 20-rotor symphony on Saturday. The 1989 Mazda 767B, 1990 Mazda 787, 1991 Mazda 787B, 1991 Mazda RX-7 GTO, and 1992 RX-792P all started up and revved together to fill the air with beautiful rotary music under the direction of Mazda Motorsports North America Senior Manager Jonathan Applegate and Mazda racing legend Pierre Dieudonné. The performance was followed by a round of applause and cheers from the crowd.
“It was, no exaggeration, emotional,” Applegate said. “It literally was like the sound was vibrating my whole body, including my brain. It was really cool. Just the recognition of that, to be able to do that, I feel honored, but the sensory of it all is like literally activating a six sense. It elevates you.”
The Belgian Rotary Professor
Pierre Dieudonné is more than just a driver, he is an encyclopedia of all things 787B. He literally wrote the book on it. The rotary engine may get all the glory when it comes to the 1991 Le Mans victory, but Dieudonné is quick to point out something else revolutionary about the 787B: it’s carbon brakes.
“The 787B were the first to do Le Mans with carbon brakes,” Diudonné said. “You had carbon brakes already in Formula One or in shorter races, but nobody has done Le Mans with carbon brakes, so there was a big question mark. Mazda hesitated a long time: shall we go for carbon brakes or not? In the end, they went for the carbon brakes, and altogether, carbon brakes plus the aero plus the further little tweaks on the engine; the difference in lap time between the 787 and the 787B was five seconds.”
Raw Power
Driving the 1990 767B at the Rolex Reunion was Tristan Nunez, who surprisingly didn’t list the sound as his favorite thing about driving Mazda’s four-rotor legends.
“The sound is actually the last thing on my list,” joked Nunez. “It’s the rawness of the car that really keeps me coming back for more. I remember my dad teaching me to drive a stick shift back when I was too young to drive. That kind of pays off where we need to drive these cars. Just 10 laps in this thing feels like a full stint in a DPi car. It’s just so raw; no power steering, everything you do, every shift is exhausting. It’s really humbling to drive and kind of put myself in the guy’s shoes who used to drive these cars flat out for Le Mans.
The 2026 Rolex Reunion marked another chapter in the Mazda Heritage collection history, uniting and attracting fans of the popular brand that has charted a path in motorsports unlike any other brand.
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