[John Greist]

This from Michael Palmer:

Mazda is poised to become the Driving Force in North American Road Racing.


Los Angeles. In an Autoextremist Exclusive, we have learned that the Skip Barber Racing Organization will have a new partner beginning in 2007 - Mazda. After years with the Chrysler Group's Dodge division, the Lime Rock, Connecticut-based racing school has signed a deal with the Japanese automaker and Ford affiliate, which means that Mazda will become the exclusive vehicle supplier to America's most well-known professional racing school. The announcement of the deal, which is slated for the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show coming up on December 14-16, in Orlando, Florida, was confirmed by a source with knowledge of the developing situation.


With this announcement, Mazda becomes the driving force powering the motorsports "ladder" in North American road racing. This means that a burgeoning driving talent can jump from Karts, to the Skip Barber Racing School, to the National Skip Barber Racing School Series, to Star Mazda, all the way up to the Champ Car-sanctioned Atlantic series - and basically complete his or her racing education exclusively in Mazda-powered racers.


The interesting part of this new partnership is that the Skip Barber racing organization will also be able to offer developmental racing programs for the racer more interested in closed-wheel machines. The school will build a fleet of the extremely popular Mazda MX-5 Cup cars for use both at the school and then at the Pro Races. So if open-wheel racing isn't your thing, you could conceivably compete in the Skip Barber Racing School, the Skip Barber Racing School Series, MX-5 Cup, Grand Am Cup, Speed World Challenge and ultimately in the American Le Mans Series in an LMP2 racing machine - all with Mazda power.


In this oftentimes grim era of the NASCAR-ization of American racing, I applaud Mazda (and Ford) for taking a leadership position in not only developing young racers, but in keeping the sport of road racing alive and well in North America for years to come.


Congratulations to all involved in making this new partnership come together.