The Mazda Heritage Assortment will wrap up its 2024 competitors season this weekend on the Mission Meals HSR Sebring Traditional 12 Hour in Florida. Mazda Motorsports is ready to carry a trio of automobiles and drivers for the occasion, together with newly topped Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup introduced by Michelin champion, Gresham Wagner.
The automobiles of the Mazda Heritage Assortment haven’t been pushed in anger because the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in August (pictured above), however the group at Flis Efficiency have been exhausting at work ensuring they’re race prepared. The three automobiles stay the identical as Monterey, however the drivers have modified.
Within the GTP class are the 1989 Mazda 767B pushed by Andrew Carbonell and the 1992 Mazda RX-792P pushed by Tom Lengthy. Within the GTO class, behind the wheel of the 1991 Mazda RX-7 GTO, nonetheless, is Wagner, the most recent Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Champion. He’ll be collaborating in his first-ever historic racing occasion.
“It’s not usually you get a possibility to drive one of many automobiles you see in so many posters, motion pictures, and video video games whilst you had been rising up, so I’m actually excited to see what the RX-7 GTO is all about and placed on a present for all the Mazda and endurance racing followers that also join with the historical past of the automotive,” Wagner stated. “I’m actually grateful to Mazda Motorsports and Flis Efficiency for placing on this program and giving me such a novel probability to be a part of it.
“I’ve by no means performed any classic racing, but it surely’s a extremely neat alternative to see lots of the standout automobiles from the historical past of the game all of us love. The automobiles are our lasting ties to these eras and reminiscences, and it’s fairly superior to have a producer like Mazda nonetheless actively supporting and showcasing a number of the most profitable automobiles from such an iconic time in sports activities automotive racing.”
A singular factor of the HSR occasion at Sebring is the show of historic struggle planes, which is becoming, seeing as how the racetrack began life as a WWII airfield and a regional airport continues to function close by.
The GTP and GTO lessons are grouped collectively, which suggests all three of the Mazda Heritage Assortment automobiles might be on monitor on the similar time and race collectively. The primary of two eight-lap dash races is Friday at 1:20pm ET, the second on Saturday at 9:20am ET. A full entry listing, schedule and hyperlink to timing and scoring will be discovered right here.
