Earlier today in downtown Long Beach Bergenholtz racing made the announcement that Full Tilt Poker.com will be their team title sponsor for the 2010 Formula Drift season. This is the first non-energy drink/non-endemic sponsor to enter the series in a while which makes me feel better about the progression of the sport. For a while I thought drifting might have reached a tipping point but it looks like its still on the rise. Congrats to the Bergenholtz team and a big welcome to Full Tilt Poker to drifting!
Once again a Mazda RX-8 took it to an ocean of Porsches and captured the checkered flag in the GT class at the famous 24 Hours Of Daytona over the weekend. Of the 7 Mazdaspeed backed RX-8s in the field three of them were within the top 10 in the GT class. Besides the #70 SpeedSource RX-8 that took 1st, the #40 Dempsey Racing (The car driven by “Dr. McDreamy himself) RX-8 came in 6th, and the #43 Team Sahlen RX-8 followed right behind taking 7th. SpeedSource’s win on Sunday is the 23rd for Mazdaspeed supported vehicles in the history of the race. I’m going to go ahead and make an early prediction that we’re going to see a lot more wankels in the field next year!
Mazda as always done pretty well in Daytona but this Saturday at the 48th running of the famous 24 hour race Mazda is increasing their chances of a win…by 7! There will be 7 Mazda RX-8′s in the field this weekend including the highly seasoned Speedsource RX-8 which has already captured wins at Daytona and Patrick Dempsey (AKA “Dr. McDreamy) in a Dempsey racing RX-8. Should be interesting to see the RX-8′s mixing it up with the inevitable ocean of Porsches on track. Check out renderings of all 7 entrys in the pic below.
Press Release:
Seven Mazda RX-8 teams are entered in the Rolex 24 for the GT class. Each RX-8 is powered by a 500hp three-rotor Mazda rotary engine.
#30 The Racers Edge RX-8 featuring 2009 MX-5 Cup Champion Todd Lamb and 2009 Atlantic Champion John Edwards
#40 The Dempsey Racing RX-8 featuring America’s fastest actor, Patrick Dempsey.
#41 The second Dempsey Racing RX-8 will be run in conjunction with Team Seattle as a charity fundraiser for a children’s hospital.
#42/43 A pair of Team Sahlen RX-8s. No strangers to Mazda, the Nonnamaker Brothers will be a factor all season long. This is their race debut in an RX-8 in Grand-Am GT competition.
#69 The SpeedSource FXDD RX-8. This team won two races in 2009.
#70 The SpeedSource Castrol Syntec RX-8. The Sylvain Tremblay-led team is looking to repeat their 2008 Rolex win. Joining the team fulltime for 2010 is Jonathan Bomarito. Jonathan is a former Mazda Atlantic Championship Star.
So during the special “Mazda 22″ event a few journalists asked Mazda if there would be any accessories available for the Mazda2, if the Mazda2 would be involved in racing, or if there would be a Mazdaspeed2. The answer to all three of those questions was either “no” or “there are no announcements”. All to be expected correct? However on the west side if their exhibit I see a Mazda2 decked out with different wheels, and even a carbon fiber wing! Oh and there were “Mazdaspeed” decals in strategic locations. So what’s the deal Mazda?! I think the cat is out of the bag!
UPDATE: So Mazda’s explaination is that this awesome little rocket is a “concept” known as the “Mazda 2Evil” but we can’t help but notice how it looks strikingly like an OEM variant! Hmm I guess we will just have to wait and see what path they’ll take with this concept.
Press Release:
Mazda 2Evil Special Concept
This concept is inspired by the weekend track car but one that can function equally well as an urban commuter. The body has been modified to show a more aggressive front spoiler and a deeper side rocker for improved aerodynamics and lower overall stance. A strong lower diffuser is added to enhance the rear proportion and more emphasis is placed on the exhaust tip. The rear upper spoiler was redesigned for both additional downforce and a race appearance. The dynamic MAZDA2 body is finished in Ceramic Grey metallic with subtle motorsports inspired graphics. The graphics are finished off with the historic number 55, a tribute to the 1991 Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B race car. Wheels, mirrors and other details are accented in Spirited Green. To top it off, the performance and stance are enhanced with 17″ wheels, 215/45/17 Yokahama Advan tires, lowered coil-over suspension provided by H&R and Magnaflow performance exhaust.
It was a big weekend for Mazda. Seven Stock was going on at its headquarters in Irvine, a ton of Mazda racers including Mazda Atlantics were at the SCCA run-offs in Road America, and finally the Dyson Racing team with their twin Mazda powered Lola coupes were taking on Acura at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Everyone thinks the big story at Petit Le Mans was the horrible rain delay but I say nay! The big story was that for the first time ever one the #16 Mazda (Driven By Chris Dyson & Guy Smith) was running the race with a new biofuel called “biobutanol”. Biobutanol is a new type of bio-fuel that has nearly the same capacity for energy as traditional gasoline but unlike other biofuels it doesn’t absorb water so to run this fuel requires minimal engine modification. Since one of the Mazda’s ran this new cutting edged fuel it had to be “UNC” or unclassified. Essentially it was running its own race against itself but before you write them off the #16 came in 7th place overall! Only the P1 cars could stay ahead of Dyson and Smith.
Meanwhile, as Dyson and Smith were making history with their experimental fuel the #20 Mazda was busy taking it to the P2 Acura’s and piloted their way to Mazda’s first class win since entering the P2 class of the American Le Mans series! Despite a new chassis and a one of a kind engine design Mazda has been chasing down the Acura’s all year and they finally pulled past them at the biggest ALMS race of the year. I’ve been watching this team closely for a while and I’m estatic to see them get their first win. Congrats to Mazda, Dyson Racing, and BP Fuels! Check out the video below for a full race recap via SPEED TV.
If you’re a Mazda fan and happen to have the HDNet (www.hd.net) channel you’re in for a treat. This weekend HDNet will be broadcasting the Autobahn Grand Prix presented by Mazda this weekend! Thats right you’re going to get Atlantics, MX-5 Cup, and Star Mazda all in Hi-Def!! If for some crazy reason you can’t partake in the high def motorsport goodness you better set your DVR and Tivos!
Press Release:
HOW ABOUT SOME HI-DEF LIVE ZOOM-ZOOM?
– HDNet to Broadcast Two Mazda-centric Race Weekends –
June 5, 2009 (Irvine, Calif). The optimistic cliché is that tough times produce new opportunities. The current economic situation is indeed a rough one for all segments of industry, especially the automotive world. The MAZDASPEED team has taken that as a challenge, and is pleased to announce a new TV partnership that will be kicked off with two big weekends of live high-definition coverage on HDNet in June and July.
The broadcasts will focus on a pair of weekends where multiple classes of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development ladder will compete:
Mazda Formula X at The New Jersey Motorsports Park — June 13-14
Autobahn Grand Prix Presented by Mazda at The Autobahn Country Club – July 25-26
Both weekends will feature a Mazda triple-header with races on both Saturday and Sunday, featuring:
Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered By Mazda
Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear
SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup
Each of the four broadcasts will be live for three hours (1:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT). The broadcast team will be led by veteran commentator Rick Benjamin and legendary race-driver Elliott Forbes Robinson.
“By focusing on two of our biggest Mazda-centric race weekends, we can offer a unique viewing opportunity. Frequently, support races are broadcast at a different day and time, and often on different networks. We know that the road racing fan who follows the Atlantic Championship also will enjoy the Star Mazda and MX-5 Cup races. Our partnership with HDNet will allow us to more closely share the on-track experience with fans around the country by giving them a three-race afternoon, and the quality of the programming and high-definition transmission means it’s nearly as good as being trackside. A big thank you to our series partners at Cooper Tires (Atlantic) and BFGoodrich Tires (MX-5 Cup) for helping to make this happen,” noted Mike Nakashima, Director of Marketing, Mazda North American Operations.
When I was at the Mazdaspeed event yesterday I was surrounded but current and vintage Mazda race cars but I was stopped in my tracks when I saw the wheel above. I knew that Mazdaspeed collab’d on wheels for the RX-8 but I didn’t know they made a forged offering for the Mazdaspeed3. The design reminds me of an RE30 but slightly different. Its made specficially for Mazda3 fitment but could you imagine getting this wheel in staggered RWD offsets?! 100% FRESH!
Within the first quarter of every year Mazdaspeed holds a media luncheon to let the world at large know what to expect from all of their motorsports interests for the year. This is my third year going and its always a great event. The cool thing about Mazda is that all the corporate guys are real car geeks and race fans and when race fans get together a good time is had by all. One of the best parts is that there is usually free food (In-N-Out Burgers this year) and various historic and current Mazda powered race cars parked around the R&D courtyard.
This year most of the news revolved around their ladder development series. One ray of sunshine is that Mazda decided to flip the bird to the recession and increase prize money for the Playboy MX-5 Cup series! There is now an additional $500 in contingency money and the first place prize rises to $5,000 Also any team that commits to the full season gets two race entry fees waived.
Perhaps the biggest news of the event was the announcement that the US Racetronics Atlantic team unveiled new drivers and new sponsors for the 2009 season. Celebrity turned race car driver Frankie Muniz and female phenom Simona De Silvestro will drive under the “Team Stargate Worlds” banner this year. Stargate Worlds is a new Massively Multi-player Online (MMO) game based on the Stargate universe that is being developed by Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment and published by FireSky.
If my memory serves me correctly this would be the first time an MMO game has ever sponsored an open wheel racing effort. Hopefully Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment will be the first of many video game developers to sponsor American racing in the future.
All in all I had a great time and as a side note I saw a few pretty fresh new Mazdaspeed products which I’ll post about later. In the meantime check out the pics.
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Team Stargate Worlds Press Release:
Feb 25, 2009
It is official, Team Stargate Worlds is now in the Atlantic Championship Series
The worlds of gaming, racing, Hollywood, and women sports all merged today when it was announced during the annual MAZDASPEED Motorsports Media Lunch in Irvine, California that Frankie Muniz and Simona De Silvestro would be teaming up for the 2009 Cooper Tires Atlantic Championship Powered By Mazda as part of Team Stargate WorldsTM. The team will be operated by US RaceTronics but will run under the banner of Team Stargate Worlds and features sponsorship from Stargate WorldsTM developer Cheyenne Mountain EntertainmentTM and publisher FireSkyTM. The sponsorship is unique in that Muniz and De Silvestro will be featured in the upcoming Stargate Worlds massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Based on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s (MGM) very sucessfull Stargate franchise, Stargate Worlds features tactical modern combat vs. science-fiction weapons and instant travel across the galaxy in a story-driven MMO.
With a challenging 12-race 2009 schedule and a significant prize package that includes a $1 million prize for the series champion, Muniz returns to the Atlantic series after a solid season in 2008 in which he earned three top-10 race results and narrowly missed finishing inside the top 10 in the championship. This marks Muniz’s third year in the series and his second year with the team.
De Silvestro is no stranger to the Atlantic Championship. The native of Thun, Switzerland who currently resides in Phoenix, Ariz. made history last year by becoming the second woman in Atlantic Championship history to win a race by taking the season-opening Imperial Capital Bank Atlantic Challenge of Long Beach. In addition to her historic win last year, De Silvestro’s 2008 season included an impressive eight top-10 finishes and a career-best eighth-place position in the final championship standings.
In addition to the sponsorship from Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment and FireSky, Team Stargate Worlds is also pleased to continue to have the support of Meguiar’s Car Care Products and Mechanix Wear, both of whom have a long relationship with USRT.
Frankie Muniz, Driver No. 77 - “I’m excited about Team Stargate Worlds and the upcoming 2009 Atlantic Championship season. I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone at Cheyenne Mountain and Mr. Gary Whiting for this incredible opportunity. I’m looking forward to working with everyone at US RaceTronics once again including my new engineer Gerald Tyler. I am very excited about the scenario of mixing my two passions of racing and acting, as I will be starring as a galactic racer in the upcoming Stargate Worlds game.”
Simona De Silvestro, Driver No. 78 – “I’m really excited for the 2009 season with Team Stargate Worlds. I want to thank Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment especially Mr. Gary Whiting for the opportunity of a lifetime. The team has a great combination of proven winners including the capable engineering of Burke Harrison, and we hope to have a very strong team this year. I’m also ecstatic about entering Frankie’s world of acting in a virtual sense as I will be starring as a intergalactic racer in the Stargate Worlds game. I’m really looking forward with partnering with Frankie in bringing our team success.”
Imran Safiulla and Shane Seneviratne, Principals of Team Stargate Worlds, - “We are very pleased to have created this association with the USRT family and believe that Team Stargate Worlds will be a very exciting team to watch for in 2009. The Stargate Worlds game is being anticipated as one of the most exciting MMOs to be released and we are very grateful to Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment for their belief in us to develop a strong pre-launch campaign for the game. Both Simona and Frankie are very unique drivers and represent fantastic human journeys. We look forward to being a part of their success and making history.”
Gary Whiting, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment Founder: “The evolution of Team Stargate Worlds is very exciting for our group. The reach of motorsports to a very large and wide audience demographic is undeniable. The Atlantic series and its assets will prove to be a solid platform that can be used to begin our pre-launch activities for our game, Stargate Worlds. Frankie and Simona are fantastic brand ambassadors and this is just a beginning of what I hope will turn into a long and successful relationship. I would like to specifically thank Shane and Imran for having created a marvelous program.”
About FireSky
FireSky TM is dedicated to the fusion of social experiences with entertainment software and games. FireSky’s first product is the Social Networks at Play game (SNAP), Stargate Worlds, based on the popular science fiction television series Stargate SG-1® and Stargate Atlantis TM which are officially licensed by MGM Interactive. For more information, visit the company’s website www.FireSky.com and the Stargate Worlds community site at www.stargateworlds.com.
About Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment
Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment TM is dedicated to the fusion of social experiences with entertainment software and games. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment’s first product is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), Stargate Worlds, based on the popular science fiction television series Stargate SG-1® and Stargate Atlantis TM which are officially licensed by MGM Interactive. For more information, visit the company’s website www.cheyenneme.com and the Stargate Worlds community site at www.stargateworlds.com
About Team Stargate Worlds Team Stargate Worlds entered the 2009 Atlantic Championship season in partnership with US RaceTronics with one of the world’s most talented female race car drivers Simona De Silvestro and Hollywood star turned serious professional racer Frankie Muniz. For more information about Team Stargate Worlds please visit www.teamstargateworlds.com
For 2009 the Mazda MX-5 is getting a facelift. A pretty cool looking one at that. However if you already have the previous generation MX-5 and you want to freshen up your front end all is not lost. The Mazdaspeed front bumper is subtle but not boring in the way that you would expect an OEM piece to be. The best part is you can get it in any of the OEM colors so you don’t need to worry about painting it.
If you’re a Mazda fanatic and I mean a serious fanatic then this post is all for you. Right now, up for auction is a completely refreshed and re-stored first generation 1984 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE. This car has had ONE OWNER and was purchased brand new from a Mazda dealer in San Luis Obispo. Back in 2003 10 grand was dropped to do a complete restore job.
This car is a rare gem indeed and could easily be the crown jewel in anyone’s classic Japanese car collection. The best part is that the proceeds from this auction will benefit the Humaine Society. So if you win this car, not only will you pick up a mint but you’ll also help out a great cause.
The Mazda is currently being auctioned right now on Autoweek.com so click on over and place a bid!
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