Mazda. A Pillar of Motorsports’ Great Society.

by charlesolaleye | December 15, 2009 at 03:41 pm

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By Charles Oladeji.

Earlier this month, at the 2009 Performance Racing Industry Show (PRI) Orlando, Florida, Gary Rodriguez founder of the Star Mazda Championship, Rodger Bailey, Director of the Indy Lights Series, and Dan Andersen, of the Cooper Tyres USF2000 jointly announced the creation of a career ladder called ‘The Road to Indy’. The announcement was as idealistic as President Lydon B. Johnson’s vision of The Great Society in the 60s. Hopefully it will be more successful.

This new development program is designed to provide a clear ladder structure for US based aspiring Open Wheel Drivers. The adopted ladder development program will create a structured career passage beginning with the USF2000, progressing through the Star Mazda Championship, Indy Light Series , then hopefully on to the IZOD IndyCar Series.

At the centre of this new founded ‘feeder ladder’ are Mazda Motorspeed Development and the Goodyear Tyre sponsored Star Mazda Championship Series. The 2009 Star Mazda Championship was won by British Adam Christadoulou of Lichfield UK, who has expressed his utter disappointment at not winning the Mclaren Autosport BRDC Award earlier this month...on his Facebook page.

Christadoulou losing out to Formula Renault UK Champion Dean Smith won’t bring forth great cries of injustice anytime soon; however, it does shine a light on a very important aspect of modern motorsports that often overlooked. It shines a light on Mazda mobility and motorsport.

For me, Mazda in motorsport is like a former dependable Chelsea FC mid-fielder of old called, Claude Makalele. Now, Claude was never going to go forward and score a lot of goals for the team, but, the team felt secure when he was around. He did the simple things right, he demanded the ball off the opponents, and supplied to his team mates. Mazda is the Claude Makalele of motorsports. Yet, one has to pay a great deal of attention to notice the role they play.

In the UK, Mazda MX 5 racing is a potent symbol of grass root racing. Even if the event itself may appear mundane and laborious to watch from the sidelines, it draws participants to it like many other race clubs around Britain. There is a plethora of racing clubs to choose from should anyone be inclined to, in fact there might be some difficulty in getting in to one. For despite hard times all around, it’s been reported that membership of race clubs in the UK are stable.

Mazdas MX5 club racing is not the sole means of low cost motor racing, but it’s been at the forefront for many years in both Britain and America. From the bottom to the top of the Road Racing however, ‘Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development’ has functioned somewhat inconspicuously as a career ladder provider, and racing league feeder for Road Racing Series in Europe and America.

Therefore, Mazda has cultivated what can be described as a ‘cult following’ within motorsports which transcends the deceptive perception of small provincial race club meetings.

Mazdas has a proud heritage in motor sports best expressed by one commentator who wrote ‘Mazda is the brand choice of road racers across America. On any given weekend, there are more Mazdas on the road tracks of America than any other brand. Every Mazda has the soul of a sports car’. There appears to be a benevolent “cult of Mazda” taking place. It is epitomised by an event put on by Southern Californian RX Club now in its 12th year called ‘Sevenstock’.

Although the term ‘Sevenstock’ could imply it’s primarily dedicated to a Mazda RX 7 Car-Club meeting’; in fact, it’s a lot more expansive than that. These annual meetings endeavour to put on a show of an eclectic collection of Mazda car models. There are kitsch classics like the 1967 Cosmos, Critically acclaimed favourites like the 1970 RX 4 and concept cars like the 2009 hydrogen fuelled RX8. The last get-together of Mazda enthusiasts for this event outside the Car Manufacturers West Coast Headquarters took place in September 2009.

This event may represent many things to Mazda aficionados but it is more a celebration of Mazdas’ dedication to a specific engine build. The engine isn’t a large or small sized piston block; on the contrary it’s a Rotary Engine.

At the very heart of The Goodyear Star Mazda Championship is the Mazdas’ Regenesis Rotary Engine capable of delivering 250hp. However, within the context of that sacred Rotary Engine created by Felix Wenkel over 40 years ago, Mazdas’ motorsports, mobility, history and aesthetics are adjudged worthy of a cult status. On display at the most recent Sevenstock event was the Mazda RX729P, a Road Racing GTP (1992), which was ceremoniously driven at Leguna Seca by Patrick Dempsey in August. Dempsey, who has benefited from some of Mazdas’ Driver development program, operates ‘Dempsey Racing’, and drove a RX8 in Grand Am Rolex Series last year.

I agree with Jeremy Clarkson who reviewed the RX8 for Top Gear. It is an impressive car, although I have never driven one. Nonetheless, when I heard the motor inside an RX 8 pass behind me, without so much as a glance for confirmation, I knew I had just heard the distinctive rev of a Wenkel engine.

People who appreciate Rotary Engines as I do are often impressed by the intricate engineering involved. In 2006 Keith Collantine of F1 Fanatic lamented the lack of Wenkel Engines in Formula One, despite its proven success at Le Mans 1991 with the 787B. ‘It’s a classic example of an innovation that could have benefited enormously from being perfected in the white heat of technological progress that is Formula One” wrote Collantine. But, would F1 have benefited from the Wenkel? That is the question.

Lamentations of Formula One and nostalgic affection for Mazda GTP’s is only part of the picture as we move into 2010. The feeder series ‘Road to Indy’ is important to the future of motorsports, just as is, the quest to find low emission racing fuel.

Road Racing is where Mazda is most visible. Mazda Motorspeed joined Dyson Racing last year, and in collaboration with sponsors British Petroleum (BP), they’ve all seized the opportunity to try out BP’s advancements in Biofuels.

The Lola chassis B08 86 ( LMP2) with a MZR 4 in-line engine developed by Advanced Engine Research (AER), competed in the last race of the ALMS season (Road Atlanta) with an advanced Biofuel formula developed by BP. The new formula developed by Dupont and BP fuses Biobutanol and regular petrol with similar emission reductions results to Ethanol.

Although the final race of the ALMS was stopped early due to the weather in Atlanta, the fuel tests conducted by Dyson Mazda Racing and BP were considered successful and will be continued in 2010. Considering Mazdas’ contribution to motorsport history, Mazda is duly acknowledged as a pillar of motorsports’ great society.