National Auto Sport Association (NASA)

The National Auto Sport Association (NASA) puts on hundreds of events each year at tracks across the country, each one featuring three levels of driving – High Performance Driving Events, Time Trials and racing. The structure allows a driver to progress through the ranks as he or she acquires the skills and his or her car acquires the necessary safety equipment.

With Time Trials and racing categories for every level of preparation, NASA concentrates primarily on production-based cars, but features categories such as Super Unlimited, where almost anything goes. The primary destination for Mazda vehicles are the Performance Touring categories, where cars are classed on a sliding scale based on stock horsepower and what modifications have been performed. Each modification carries a point value, and the point total dictates in which PT class the cars – usually RX-8s, RX-7s, MX-5s and Miatas – go. Super Touring also features Mazda racers.

Spec Miata, featuring like-prepared first- and second-generation Miatas, is hugely popular in NASA and forms the basis for the Teen Mazda Challenge. Winners of the Teen Mazda Challenge are eligible for the Teen Mazda Challenge, as are Mazda-propelled winners at the NASA Eastern and Western States Championships held each year.

NASA sanctions the U.S. Touring Car Championship, several endurance racing championships and NASA RallySport for stage rally competition – all of which Mazda vehicles are eligible to compete.