The Series

  1. In 2010, The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will enter its 20th year as one of the most prolific, successful and richest open-wheel driver development series in North America.  Drivers 16 and older are welcome.
  2. The Star Mazda Championship is a 'gateway' series to many forms of professional racing. Star Mazda graduates include ex-Red Bull F1 racer Scott Speed, Indy Car stars Graham Rahal, Marco Andretti and Rafael Matos, American LeMans Series prototype racers Gerardo Bonilla and Ben Devlin and NASCAR rising stars Colin Braun, Michael McDowell and Brad Coleman.
  3. Star Mazda is a stable, highly-professional series; both title sponsors, Mazda and Goodyear, have signed 5-year contract extensions that run through the end of the 2013 season.
  4. Budgets vary from team to team and depending on what kind of deal the driver can work out, but in general, costs are less per racing mile than Formula BMW.

The MAZDASPEED Motorsports Driver Development Ladder

Up-and-coming race drivers have two major challenges: winning on the track, and finding the resources to move up to the next level.  Mazda, in conjunction with series corporate partners, is making the second task significantly easier for this year’s champion drivers.  Mazda will provide a next-level, fully-funded ride for the 2010 season in a Mazda powered car to the 2009 champions of selected Mazda series.

“We are committed to developing the next generation of racers with a ladder system that provides drivers with Mazda and Mazda-powered open and closed-wheel cars throughout their careers,” said Robert Davis, Senior Vice President, Product Development and Quality, and the man responsible for Mazda’s North American motorsports operations under the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development banner. “Too often the cost of racing has meant that a promising career has stagnated due to a lack of budget.  With this initiative, Mazda will change that.” 

Open-wheel racers are competing for these awards in 2009:
  • One successful kart racer will participate in a full season of the BF Goodrich Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda in 2010.
  • The 2009 Skip Barber National Champion will be racing in the 2010 Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear.
  • The 2009 Star Mazda Champion will be racing in the 2010 Cooper Tires Presents the Atlantic Series Powered by Mazda.

Over the past decade, Mazda has developed an increasingly strong presence at road racing tracks around the nation.  At the 2009 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring festivities, Mazda is represented in five of the eight races, and six of the thirteen different classes of cars, more than any other brand including Porsche, Ferrari, General Motors, Ford, Dodge, Toyota and Honda.

Mazda is the brand of choice for road-racers across North America.  More than 9,000 grassroots racers compete in various classes with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and the National Auto Sport Association (NASA).  Racers who are years away from earning a driver’s license can now begin their professional motorsports careers in the Mazda family.  A driver can begin in karts and progress through the Skip Barber series, Club Racing Formula Mazda, professional Star Mazda and finally to Formula Atlantic, all with Mazda.  No other car company has ever connected the dots this way.

  • 2008 Star Mazda Champion John Edwards moved up to compete with Newman-Wachs in the 2009 Atlantic Championship and is currently second in the points battle.
  • 2007 Star Mazda Champion Dane Cameron finished 4th in the 2008 Atlantic Championship driving for Genoa Racing and is currently co-driving the #30 Racers Edge Mazda RX-8 in the Grand-AM GT1 category.   
  • 2005 Star Mazda Champion Raphael Matos won the Atlantic Championship in 2007.  He moved up and won the Indy Lights Championship in 2008 (his rookie year) and is now a full-time driver for the Luzco Dragon team in the Indy Racing League in 2009. 
  • Joel Miller, the 2007 Skip Barber Pro Series champion raced in Star Mazda during the 2008 season with sponsorship from the MAZDASPEED Ladder program and finished second in the 2008 Star Mazda Championship.  He has returned for a second season and is currently 3rd in the championship.
  • Conor Daly, son of racing legend Derek Daly, won the 2008 Skip Barber Championship and is the MAZDASPEED Ladder driver in the 2009 Star Mazda Championship.  He drives the #22 Andersen Racing / College Network / Indeck / Cytomax Mazda and is currently 4th in the championship.
2007 Star Mazda Championship racer Natacha Gachnang and 2008 graduate Tom Gladdis have both moved up to race in the new FIA Formula Two series.

The Cars

  1. Star Mazda Championship Pro Formula Mazdas are high-tech open-wheel cars with a carbon fiber chassis, fully-adjustable suspension and 6-speed sequential gearbox. All cars were upgraded at the start of the 2009 season with improved aerodynamics, suspension, brakes and engine.   Performance is comparable to a Formula Atlantic car.
  2. The engine is Mazda’s legendary ‘Renesis’ rotary, race-tuned to produce 250 horsepower, speeds of over 160 mph and 0 to 60 mph acceleration of 2.8 seconds. 
  3. The engine is so reliable that it may last a full season, contributing to the relatively low costs of competing in the Star Mazda Championship.
  4. The ‘single-spec’ engineering of Star Mazda Championship race cars showcases driving talent instead of big budgets.

The Races

  1. Star Mazda Championship races are 45 minutes long, and are held on a variety of racetrack types, including natural-terrain road courses, street circuits and ovals.  To see in-car videos of the tracks the series raced on in 2008, click here.
  2. Standing starts are used on road courses and street circuits.  Rolling starts are used on ovals.
  3. The 2009 Star Mazda Championship consists of thirteen races on eleven weekends; two weekends have races both Saturday and Sunday.  To see a copy of the schedule, click here. The 2010 schedule will be similar.

The Prizes

  1. Prize value approaches $1.5 million, including a Mazda-sponsored drive for the Star Mazda series champion in the next step up the motorsports ladder, the Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda.
  2. The series champion, in addition to the Mazda-sponsored full-season drive in the Atlantic Championship, is awarded a $100,000 cash prize.
  3. The 'Rookie of the Year' award includes a $10,000 cash prize.
  4. Prize money is paid down through 15th place in the championship.  Checks for all prizes are presented at the series' season-ending banquet.
  5. Additional prizes are provided by series sponsors, with sets of new racing tires, brakes, and other racing hardware awarded through a drawing during the driver meeting before each race.

The Teams

  1. Star Mazda teams are highly professional and are located in various areas around the United States, from Pacific Northwest to Central Florida.  For a list of teams and links to their web sites, click here.
  2. No individual season is an accurate reflection of any team's professionalism or capability and all are capable of fielding a winning car.  The chemistry with the driver, level of funding and even racing luck all have an effect.  However, if you wish to research the records of individual teams and view the results from previous seasons, click here.

The Television

  1. Several races on the 2009 schedule were broadcast live on HDnet, a network that delivers unique content and provocative, authentic programming that appeals to men of all ages.  Launched in 2001, the HDNet networks are available on AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, DIRECTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Verizon and more than 40 NCTC cable affiliate companies. 
  2. Additionally, several races were syndicated to a variety of networks with a viewership of more than 55 million.  Go to www.MazdaRacing.TV for the broadcast schedule.
  3. The television package for 2010 is being finalized and will be published as soon as available.
  4. All cars can (for an additional per-race or full-season fee) be equipped with on-board cameras.  The recorded footage is supplied to the driver and teams for use as both training and marketing tool.

Expert and Master Series

  1. The Star Mazda Championship also provides categories for more mature racers in whom the competitive fire still burn brightly – the Expert Series for drivers aged 30 to 44 and the Master Series for drivers 45 and older.
  2. The Expert and Master Series run as a race-within-a-race.  All drivers are on track at the same time competing in equal equipment.  Expert and Master drivers scoring series championship points and prize money, and they are also racing among themselves for the Expert and Master Championship, with a separate points structure and prize money.
  3. The top finishing Expert and Master in each race, wherever they finish in the overall field, share the podium, TV interviews, photo opportunities and champagne spraying as the top-3 finishers.
  4. In recognition of the fact that many Expert and Master drivers are company CEOs with schedules that occasionally conflict with race weekends, ten of the thirteen races count toward the championship.  This allows Expert and Master drivers to miss three races without penalty, or to drop their worst three finishes if they run all thirteen races.

The Rules

  1. The rules for each season, as well as periodic updates, are posted on the Star Mazda Championship web site.  To view the series rules in PDF format, click here.

The Marketing Kit

  1. The Star Mazda Championship provides for use by drivers and teams a marketing kit, available in both downloadable/ printable PDF format and as a powerpoint presentation for use on computer.  To view a copy of this kit, click here.

If there are additional questions you would like to have answered, please visit the Star Mazda Championship web site at www.starmazda.com.  Or call the series headquarters at 001-818-686-3350; we can provide additional information, put you in touch with drivers who have competed in the series who can give you that information that only one driver can pass along to another.

We hope to see you on the grid at Sebring in March for the beginning of the 2010 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear.


 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

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