Ernie Francis Jr.

Ernie Francis Jr. took his former MX-5 Cup car from TCA to TC configuration for 2015. Ernie Francis Jr. found that taking an MX-5 Cup car to Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car A was a fairly simple transition. Put on a hardtop, change the graphics, go racing, win. Taking that same car into the Touring […]”

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Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car and Touring Car B kick off their season this weekend at Circuit of the Americas. The Pirelli World Challenge is looking stronger than ever, with big fields and several standalone races where the series is the headliner, such as the season opener at Circuit of the Americas in Austin this […]”

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Taking an MX-5 into Pirelli World Challenge’s new TCA class proved a wise move. Pirelli World Challenge created its new “A” classes with the idea of bringing more privateers into its series; it seems to have worked. Ernie Francis Jr. made the jump from a TCB – World Challenge’s B-Spec class – Mazda2 to a […]”

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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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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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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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Adam Poland, of Mt. Vernon, Texas, took his first Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car victory in the second of two races at Road America on Friday, after finishing third in the wet first race earlier in the day. Poland dominated the late afternoon Round 8 driving the No. 11 Eastex Motorsports/Poland Construction Mazda MX-5. He […]”

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Ernie Francis Jr. crept up on his first victory in the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car A Championship, starting on the podium on Friday  and moving up a spot in each subsequent race during a three-contest event at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ont. In the final race, Francis Jr. started his No. 98 […]”

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  Mazda Motorsports has a blockbuster weekend coming up on the streets of Texas’s largest city during the Shell Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston. The SCCA Pro Racing Pirelli World Challenge Championships wrap up their season, two Mazda-powered steps on the Mazda Road to Indy ladder have their finales and the Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup […]”

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“If someone comes from Spec Miata, they’re used to momentum driving,” says Ernie Francis Sr., who runs the most successful TCB team in Pirelli World Challenge, where his son Ernie Francis Jr. is leading the points in his Mazda2. “You have to be on the gas so much sooner than any other car. It’s hard […]”

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The B-Spec class in SCCA Club Racing and the corollary Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car B Championship have been gaining momentum and popularity. One of the more popular weapons chosen for the racing class designed to be low-cost and great for beginning racers is the Mazda2. No team has used the Mazda2 to better effect […]

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