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Mazda’s R.A.C.E. STEM Education Outreach Program Surpasses 10,000 Students September 19, 2014 (AUSTIN, Tex.) – It’s back-to-school time for school kids across the county and the acclaimed R.A.C.E. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education outreach program is back in action. Launched by Mazda in January, the Racing Accelerates Creative Education (R.A.C.E.) outreach program has now […]”

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SpeedSource and its innovative Mazda diesels hope to make an impression at COTA and Road Atlanta. As the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship heads into its final races, the SpeedSource Race Engineering team and its Mazda SKYACTIV Diesel Prototypes have only a couple more occasions to show the progress the team has made with the cars […]”

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BEHIND THE ZOOM forums for Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and VIR are upon us. The BEHIND THE ZOOM campaign is a series where 12 Mazda factory drivers and champions break down many of the tracks and venues that you race at. Many of these drivers will take you through a turn-by-turn discussion of Mazda Raceway […]”

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MX-5 racer earns second victory of the season with flag-to-flag win. Adam Poland scored his second Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car victory of the season, and the second for Mazda, in his No. 11 Texas Track Works/Eastex Motorsports MX-5 in the penultimate round at Miller Motorsports Park. Poland, of Mt. Vernon, Texas, drove a flawless […]”

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Six Team USA Scholarship Candidates Display Their Talents at Auto Club Speedway.

 A wide variety of accomplished insiders from the world of motorsports have a tough task ahead of them as they work toward naming two winners from a group of six candidates who auditioned at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., on Monday for […]”

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Mazda racers earn nation-wide points championships in SCCA SafeRacer Club Racing program.     Following the conclusion of the SCCA U.S. Majors Tour season, 27 nation-wide points champions have been crowned in in the SafeRacer Club Racing program. Eight of those were Mazda racers – six in open classes and two in spec classes. The […]”

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Ernie Francis Jr. has a shot at the Touring Car A title in his MX-5. The Pirelli World Challenge concludes its 25th anniversary season with a return to Miller Motorsports Park, where five of the six championships are set to be decided. One Mazda driver has an outside shot at claiming the title in his […]”

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Switching from car to car doesn’t have to be dramatic, says club and pro racer Andrew Carbonell. Andrew Carbonell has driven a variety of MX-5s. In addition, he has some karting and formula car experience plus some time in the GX-class Mazda SKYACTIV-D Clean Diesels that ran in the Rolex Sports Car Series last year. […]”

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Want coaching help at the Runoffs? Buy a GoPro from MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development. Reviewing video is valuable. Reviewing video right after a session – even more valuable. How about reviewing your video after a practice or qualifying session at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs with Mazda Factory Driver and Professional Driver Coach Tom Long? For […]”

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Six candidates compete for opportunity to compete in international formula car racing. Two Mazda scholarship racers are among six young motorsports standouts to be invited to participate in the Team USA Scholarship Shootout at Auto Club Speedway in California. Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by BFGoodrich points leader Kenton Koch and USF2000 Rookie of the Year […]”

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Mazda drivers claim titles in SCCA’s championship event for autocrossers. The 2014 SCCA Solo National Championships have wrapped up four days of competition at Lincoln Airpark in Lincoln, Neb. A record 1185 competitors tackled two different courses, with about half taking to the two courses on Tuesday-Wednesday and the bulk of the eight Mazda Solo […]”

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Fourth-generation roadster is 220lbs. lighter than its predecessor. The car that will soon populate race and autocross grids across the country, just as so many of its predecessors have in both open competition and as part of one of the largest spec racing classes in history, has been revealed. Shown simultaneously in Monterey, Calif., Japan […]”

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Several Mid-States Majors titles wrapped up in Kansas. The final Majors race of the 2014 season is in the books. The culmination of the Mid-States Conference season wrapped up those championships that were still undecided and let others complete qualifications for the National Championship Runoffs at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Competitors were met by hot, […]”

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Mazda will show the next generation at 6 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday, Sept. 3. Mazda fans and racers have been less-than-patiently waiting to see the fourth generation of MX-5 ever since Mazda previewed the SKYACTIV chassis at the New York International Auto Show in April. Well, the wait is over. Mazda will hold simultaneous global […]”

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MX-5 racer takes two wins in World Challenge TCA. After winning at Barber Motorsports Park early in the season, Ernie Francis Jr. had been searching for another win in Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car A, the class for non-professional drivers. He finally found the formula at Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota in Rounds 11 and […]”

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Thrilling Spec Miata race caps three days of competition at Road Atlanta. The National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) ninth annual NASA Championships presented by Toyo Tires Eastern States Championships wrapped the weekend at Road Atlanta on Sunday, including a thrilling Spec Miata race.  Matthew Pombo, winner of both qualifying races, led the 34-car field to […]”

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Grids set for National Championship races at Road Atlanta. The National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) ninth annual NASA Championships presented by Toyo Tires Eastern States Championships has set the grids for Sunday’s championship races at Road Atlanta.  In the second Spec Miata qualifying race of the weekend, the 34 competitors that took the start were […]”

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East Coast NASA racers tackle Road Atlanta in the first of two championships. The National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) ninth annual NASA Championships presented by Toyo Tires Eastern States Championships is underway at Road Atlanta.  More than 50 Mazda-powered race cars are competing for top class honors at the first of what is twin NASA […]”

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Concentrating on a few key elements will help you be faster, says six-time champ Bartek Borowski. The key to a successful autocross run starts well before a driver pulls his car up to the starting line. Anybody who’s been to at least one autocross knows that the course walk is important. Because the course changes […]”

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Mazda racers seek NASA championships at Road Atlanta. The National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) Eastern States Championship takes place this weekend at Road Atlanta. For the first time since the organization started having a national event, it’s splitting it into two different events to encourage more participation on both sides of the country. “We moved […]”

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Mazda Road to Indy Season Concludes: Others to Come

August 28, 2014 (IRVINE, Calif.) – With involvement in over a dozen series, late summer and fall are a busy time for races and award dinners for Mazda Motorsports. This past weekend saw the 2014 season finales for the three Mazda Road to Indy Championships in Sonoma, California, and the clinching of the Cooper Tires IMSA Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda title at VIRginia International Raceway.

“When Mazda established the MAZADSPEED Motorsports Development Ladder System in 2006, we were seeking to grow the sport by allowing talent to move to the next level. We’re happy to celebrate the success of Florian, Spencer, Gabby, and Mikhail this season with more championships coming this fall,” noted John Doonan, Director of Motorsports for Mazda North American Operations.

The Mazda Road to Indy consists of three championships, each a stepping stone on the way to competing in the Verizon IndyCar Championship and the Indy 500. All three championships concluded with a doubleheader weekend at Sonoma Raceway in Northern California.
• Florian Latrobbe won the 2014 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda.
• Spencer Pigot won the 2014 Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires.
• Gabby Chaves won the 2014 Cooper Tires Indy Lights Championship.

Mikhail Goikhberg clinched the 2014 Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda title at VIRginia International Raceway with his seventh win of the year. Goikhberg will be officially crowned when the series wraps up at Road Atlanta as a part of the Petit Le Mans week.

After ten of 12 races completed, Kenton Koch leads the 2014 Mazda MX-5 Cup Championship. Drake Kemper is the points leader in the Skip Barber MAZDASPEED Pro Challenge Class. The season concludes with a doubleheader at Road Atlanta as a part of the Petit Le Mans week.

This coming weekend will be the first of four large grassroots championships.
• The Eastern States NASA Championships are August 29-31 at Road Atlanta.
• The SCCA Solo Championships will be held September 1-5 in Lincoln Nebraska. Mazda racers have scored 213 Solo Championships since 1979.
• The largest and most historic annual club racing event will be even more Mazda-esque this year. The 51st annual SCCA National Championship Runoffs will be held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on October 6-12. This is the first time since 1968 the event has been held on the West Coast. Over 120 Mazda racers will be competing in 15 of the 27 race groups.
• The Western States NASA Championships are scheduled for November 7-9 at Sonoma Raceway

In the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, The Mazda SKYACTIV Prototype continues to develop in its first season of competition. The final two races of the season are September 20 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and the season finale Petit Le Mans on October 4 at Road Atlanta.

In the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, Mazda remains locked in a three-way battle with Porsche and BMW for the 2014 Street Tuner Manufacturers championship. Mazda is represented by Freedom Autosport and CJ Wilson Racing. The final two races of the season are September 20 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and October 3 at Road Atlanta.

In the Pirelli World Challenge, Mazda has been represented by multiple racers in the Touring Car, and Touring Car A classes with Adam Poland and Ernie Francis Jr. both scoring wins with MX-5s. The World Challenge season will conclude on September 13 at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

Finally, in a new twist for Mazda Motorsports, simulator racing plays a part with the creation of the iRacing MX-5 Cup. The first champion was Evan Maillard, while the second champion will be determined on October 20.

About Mazda, Mazda Motorsports, and MAZDASPEED
Mazda is a leading player in all aspects of sports car racing with an emphasis on endurance road racing. Mazda is the number-one brand for road-racers across North America among both club racers and professionals. Thousands of Mazda-powered grassroots racers compete in various classes with the SCCA and NASA highlighted by Spec Miata, the world’s largest spec class with over 2,500 cars built. Via the Mazda SportsCar Racing Academy, Mazda supports racers at all levels of the sport from club racing up to the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship where it races with production SKYACTIV Technology.

Mazda remains the only Asian car company to score an overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1991). Mazda has had a naming rights agreement at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca since 2000.

Mazda Motorsports is managed by Mazda North American Operations (MNAO). MNAO is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through nearly 700 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City.

Consumer information can be found at www.mazdausa.com, with press information at www.mazdausamedia.com. Racers and fans can follow the action on Facebook (Mazda Motorsports), Twitter (@mazdaracing), Instagram (MazdaMotorsport) and www.mazdamotorsports.com