24 replies to this topic

[Johnny D]

THE MAZDA MIATA HERITAGE CUP IS COMING TO ROAD AMERICA (MAY 18-21) AND MID-OHIO (JUNE 22-25)

  

A Cool New Place to Race Early Spec Miatas – And It’s a Bargain

 

Racing comes in many flavors from the intense pressure of professional motorsports, to a wide variety of club racing opportunities.  There is also the amazing world of vintage racing, when often times the car is older than the driver.  Mazda appreciates heritage, we love great events, and of course we love the MX-5 Miata.

 

For Mazda racers, competing in the inaugural season of the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) Mazda Miata Heritage Cup, there may be no more interesting weekend this year.  For a $295 entry fee a racer will receive:

    
    A two-day race weekend plus a test day for a total of approximately two hours of contact-free on-track time (vintage racing is not meant to be a contact sport.

   
    Dinner for two with the SVRA paddock on Saturday night.

   
    A special Mazda contingency program where every entry earns a $200 participation bonus.

   
    A fun weekend spent with great people and many of the greatest race cars in history.

As Mazda launched the fourth generation MX-5 Miata, the original cars quietly became vintage eligible having passed the minimum age 25-year milestone. While Spec Miata includes both first and second generation cars, the “Mazda Miata Heritage Cup” will be exclusive for the first generation Miatas of 1990 to 1997.

 

“The nature of vintage racing is hard competition, but with zero tolerance for contact,” said John Doonan, director for Mazda North American Operations. “It will be great to see a field of Spec Miata racers racing clean such that no body repairs are required.”

 

Registration for Road America and Mid-Ohio is underway. Register now to ensure you can be part of this historic experience.

 

Road America               https://svra.com/eve...ntage-festival/

Mid-Ohio                       https://svra.com/eve...ix-of-mid-ohio/

 

The new vintage spec Mazda Miata Heritage Cup is the latest enhancement to what the SVRA calls its season of motorsports festivals where fans yearning for the days of wide variety in car design and engine noises can have their fill. The new Mazda Miata Heritage Cup will have its own distinct races as do other run groups such as the Historic Trans Am cars. Professional Trans Am also shares the stage with the SVRA at various points throughout the season. The festival format of America’s premier vintage racing series with cars spanning 100 years of history also frequently includes Motostalgia car auctions, car shows and music concerts by iconic bands.

 

Mazda Motorsports will provide support resources to the SVRA in organizing the Mazda Miata Heritage Cup events and season championship. The Mazda races will run with the SVRA at the following 2017 events:

    
    May 18-21 Road America

 
    June 22-25 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

  
    July 27-30 Portland International Raceway

   
    September 21-24 Virginia International Raceway

[Bench Racer]

Was going to do Road America, BUT, life got in the way for my driver.

[davew]

Advanced will have 2 cars; my very first SM from 2001 and a NA 1.8. Tony Fornetti is also planning on coming with his 1.6

[FTodaro]

I am setting up the Silver 17 of Brian Murdick, so we will be there to sport the longest running/racing 16 in SCCA. Will be interesting to see SM racing with no contact maybe we can learn from it.

[davew]

I am setting up the Silver 17 of Brian Murdick, so we will be there to sport the longest running/racing 16 in SCCA. Will be interesting to see SM racing with no contact maybe we can learn from it.

 

I question your statement about longest running SM. My original car was built in spring 2001 and ran it's first Midwestern Council race on April 25th, 2001. We had a total of 3 SM's entered and one of the other 2 ( a NA 1.8) is still in my shop and currently racing. My cars first SCCA race was in August of 2001.

 

Can you beat that   

[LarryKing]

Murdick's car was built Winter 2000/2001 by my brother Dave and friend Jerry Stewart. Brian raced it in CenDiv Area4 (now Great Lakes Division) in 2001 as an ITA, SM was not a class in CenDiv4 yet. Brian and Shane Benson ran the first CenDiv Area 4 SM race at IRP in May 2002. My wife and I ran the second CenDiv4 SM race at Mid-Ohio, the Freedom Regional, July 2002. Four SMs were entered, Murdick, Benson, Steve Nowicki and D&D Mathias. I built my car Winter 2001/2002 and have raced it every year since. Murdick bought and raced a '99 last year so my SM might be the longest continuously campaigned car of the original CenDiv4/Great Lakes gang.

[davew]

Midwestern Council adopted SM over the winter of 2000/2001. I bought my first donor car in Florida, in early April of 2001 and debuted at Blackhawk Farms later that month. Yes, I built the car in about 50 man hours! The original MC logbook is lost for the car, but I do have race results for the event.

 

My first SCCA race was as an ITA car in August of 2001, I have the logbook for that event.

 

The other original cars where owned by John O'fallen and Aaron Newton. Last I heard the O'Fallen car was in Texas, but that was about 10 years ago. The Newton car is now owned by Anthony Devita and is still raced a few times a year in Midwestern Council. At the LOOOONG race in October 2001, we had 6 SM's competing.

 

I set the track record at the LOOOONG race at Blackhawk in October 2001. That record stood for a year, at 1:26.7. Voytek just did 1:21.4

 

The older I get, the faster I was.

 

Dave

[FTodaro]

Ok we have two Old Fart cars. What is amazing to me is that while the #17 has a few dents and dings, it has seen the track every yr since, i belive and it has many of the original panels  on it. I wish i could say that.

 

Maybe i should revise my statement above to say "one of the longest running"

[Ron Alan]

I know it wasnt SM but I picked up and sold a Miata whose first race(log book) was 1991!

[davew]

Ok we have two Old Fart cars. What is amazing to me is that while the #17 has a few dents and dings, it has seen the track every yr since, i belive and it has many of the original panels  on it. I wish i could say that.

 

Maybe i should revise my statement above to say "one of the longest running"

^^^ AGREED ^^^^^

 

Amazing that we have SM's that are this old still running. With drivers still having fun. And me and Frank can jab each other on the internet and both come out smiling.

 

LONG LIVE SPEC MIATA

[Jim Drago]

I know it wasnt SM but I picked up and sold a Miata whose first race(log book) was 1991!

I want to enter mine in the contest. It was built in late 2015 and raced first at Sebring 1/16

Its already for sale and starting 2018 version 14.0  

[Tom Sager]

I know it wasnt SM but I picked up and sold a Miata whose first race(log book) was 1991!

Before the end of the day I expect Jim Daniels to post that he drove a right hand drive prototype with a wankel engine at Suzuka in Japan in 1987 and came up with the SM idea back then. 

[Jonathan Davis]

Murdick's car was built Winter 2000/2001 by my brother Dave and friend Jerry Stewart. Brian raced it in CenDiv Area4 (now Great Lakes Division) in 2001 as an ITA, SM was not a class in CenDiv4 yet. Brian and Shane Benson ran the first CenDiv Area 4 SM race at IRP in May 2002. My wife and I ran the second CenDiv4 SM race at Mid-Ohio, the Freedom Regional, July 2002. Four SMs were entered, Murdick, Benson, Steve Nowicki and D&D Mathias. I built my car Winter 2001/2002 and have raced it every year since. Murdick bought and raced a '99 last year so my SM might be the longest continuously campaigned car of the original CenDiv4/Great Lakes gang.

 

I'm the current owner of Shane's old 1.6. Still has the logbook entries from those races back in 2002. I've only driven it personally a couple times since I got my newer car, but it is still actively raced by my teammate in NASA Great Lakes. I think it has straighter body panels than my '99 too, mostly...

 

I really want to run it at the Mid-Ohio event, but I have a scheduling conflict so I'm not sure we'll make it.

[Bench Racer]

Before the end of the day I expect Jim Daniels to post that he drove a right hand drive prototype with a wankel engine at Suzuka in Japan in 1987 and came up with the SM idea back then. 

It's also interesting who claims to have came up with the idea of Spec 7.   

[Johnny D]

36th Macau grand prix in 1989

 

 

J~

[davew]

Just back in the shop after a great, fun weekend at Road America with SVRA. As many of you know, RA is not my favorite track, too many nights in the mud changing motors on Trans-Am and IMSA cars in my past.

 

Advanced had 2 NA cars for the event. Voytek drove my original SM 1.6. And Tony Parella, owner of SVRA was in the ex-Jim Kettelkamp 95. We also took the 99 built for Mazda Solo Scholarship winner (Julian Garfield) as a display of what a new fresh built SM can look like. Tony asked me to take the Garfield car out as a field filler. Now, I have not raced at Road America in about 13 years. But what the heck, it is a VINTAGE race, what can go wrong. And I had FUN. I never got close to the limits of myself or the car. Followed a very ill handling 1.6 around most of the race. Swapped positions several times. And got out of the car with a smile. I finished 5th out of the 8 cars. Voytek and Tony Fornetti in his 1.6, "battled" for the whole race. Put on a great show for the fans. Voytek won with a last lap pass.

 

The SVRA experience was great. Registration was smooth and friendly. Tech was easy. And the no pressure racing was fun. We even had a great Prime Rib dinner at the Osthoff resort on Saturday night. Vintage racing has zero tolerence for contact. No bump drafting, no dive bombing, no drama. If you are tired of doing body work and having to drive over your abilities, try the Vintage groups. More of them are allowing SM's into their events. I know Advanced will be bringing cars to the Mid Ohio SVRA event in June.

 

Thanks again to Tony from SVRA for inviting Miatas to his event. And for allowing me to race at Road America. Thanks to the Advanced crew who took 2 NA cars that had not been raced for a few years, and made them into reliable and fast racecars again. And to Ann, who told me to "get in the car and go have some fun" at Road America.

 

Now for you 1.6ers. The Voytek car was build in 2001 as mentioned above. The engine is a crate motor that I personally installed in ~2003. No regulator, no dyno time. Probably 105 hp. Same shocks, bushings etc from when I built it. Green race track, 6 session tires, no draft, no push. 1:46's with ease.

 

Remember, Racing is Supposed to be FUN

Dave

[Bench Racer]

Dave, happy you and drivers had fun. Did you have rain Sat.?  

[davew]

Rained Saturday afternoon for qualifying. Only 2 of the 8 Sm's went out in the wet. None of mine.

[Johnny D]

 

Mazda Miata Heritage Cup Attracting Drivers

 

Miatas at SVRA events have brought out drivers who have been sitting on the sidelines, and steered others toward racing differently

 

The idea of the Miata in vintage racing may still be a bit hard to grasp, even though the first cars are now 27 years old. With the creation of the Mazda Miata Heritage Cup by the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) and Mazda Motorsports, those early cars now have a place to race on select SVRA weekends. The no-contact, relaxed environment, along with the opportunity for 1.6-liter cars to race amongst themselves, is bringing out some drivers who haven’t raced for a while – and they’re singing the praises of the new series.

 

“It was a small field, but the racing was very good,” says Mike Winebrenner of the most recent race at Road America. “We had everything from guys who were frontrunners at the [SCCA] June Sprints to guys who haven’t done it in 10-plus years but, because of the SVRA, thought they’d go out and do it again. I’ll go back and do this again; it’s a little less intimidating process of starting. That was part of the draw. I raced Spec Miata 10 years ago and I was pretty competitive back then, but I was a little intimidated getting back into it.”

 

Because the 1.6-liter cars aren’t as competitive in SM, and because of the frequency of bumper-to-bumper contact in Spec Miata, Winebrenner hasn’t been driving the car despite holding onto it all these years. SVRA has a no-contact rule, and strict penalties for violating it. That has attracted some others who have been turned off by the preponderance of contact in the class in SCCA and NASA.

 

“The problem is these cars are grouped so closely together, and it’s a class that’s known for contact,” explains Tony Fornetti, who finished second in the Road America Miata Heritage Cup. Fornetti was running the SCCA Majors this year, but after running with SVRA, has changed his focus.

 

“We thought we’d use it as a precursor to the June Sprints,” he continues. “It’s $300 to run, it’s a fantastic deal. We had no idea what we’d be in for; it’s like a car show – the machinery that was there was incredible and it’s spectator friendly. We rolled the car to the back of the trailer, let the kids sit in it. Everybody that came by had a Miata story. It was just a different atmosphere.”

 

 

Fornetti wanted to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Runoffs, but he hopes that SVRA will add the Heritage Cup to the schedule for its Indy event in the future. “At some point, we’d like to go to Indy – I’d like to run at Daytona. But I’d like to learn these tracks at my own pace. If there’s a no-contact rule and all the racers know that, I can go to a track I’ve never been to, learn it at my own pace, come back in one piece and have a great time doing it.”

 

Dave Wheeler, owner of Advanced Autosport, a prep and rental shop in Wisconsin, was a last-minute entry into the Road America field, but he’s glad to have done it. “For the guys that don’t want to drive at 99.99 percent and who are tired of doing bodywork and want to go have fun and take some pressure off and enjoy the car, it’s perfect,” Wheeler says. “Their no-contact rule is part of it. You’re not trying to win anything, you’re just out there for the enjoyment of it. If you take the edge off it, it’s more fun.”

 

Wheeler says he believes the class will grow and says he has received several calls from customers inquiring about running future SVRA events. The next SVRA race that features the Mazda Miata Heritage Cup will be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on June 22-25, followed by events at Portland International Raceway in July and VIRginia International Raceway in September.

 

“Hats off to Tony Pirello at SVRA,” says Winebrenner. “He runs a great race event, but also hats off to him for thinking outside the box and running this class. He’s definitely thinking about vintage racing for a younger generation.”

[Charles Boehly]

Ok, who is going?