Neither one of us qualified to move on to the next round of the Mazda Hot Lap Challenge, but we had a blast trying! The Hot Lap Challenge is still going on and the last round will be held during the final race of the IMSA season at Road Atlanta on Oct 11 through Oct 13. So if you’re going to be at Road Atlanta for Petit Lemans, be sure to look for the Mazda fan zone for your chance to take on the Mazda Hot Lap Challenge. If you can’t make the race, you can still participate by creating an iRacing account and taking on the challenge online.
The Mazda Hot Lap Challenge is just a small part of Mazda’s involvement in motorsports. They also have contingency and scholarship programs for grassroots racers. One of their more popular and exciting programs for aspiring racers is their Mazda Road to 24 which is a ladder system designed to help drivers work their way from MX-5 spec racing to Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge or Cooper Tire Prototype Lite series, and then ultimately to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship which host the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
So if you’ve always been looking for a way into professional motorsports, the Mazda Hot Lap Challenge may just be your very first step up the Mazda motorsports ladder. Who knows? One day you may end up behind the wheel of the Mazda backed prototype racing program.
PS: During my time at Laguna Seca I was able to spend some time in the Team Jost pits who run the Mazda RT24 prototype program. So be sure to stay tuned for a full MotoIQ style feature of the Mazda RT24-P!
Sources
Mazda
iRacing
Base51
2 comments
yeah…this is the first sim I’ve been on where I could blow a motor…twice… 🙁 LOL
“The young fan above was testing his driving skills around the 2.238 mile long WeatherTech Laguna Seca raceway.”
It sure looks like the fan is driving at Daytona International Speedway from what I can see.
Great article!!!