In its 35-year history, the Miata has provided numerous opportunities for motorsports success.
A quick glance through the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship paddock reveals a host of drivers who’ve climbed the Mazda ladder on their journey to being paid professionals – IMSA winners Robby Foley, Stevan McAleer, Patrick Gallagher, Kenton Koch, Elliott Skeer, and others, raced Miatas at some point during their career. And even though he’s now plying his trade primarily in NASCAR, Connor Zilisch raced Spec Miata as he transitioned from karts and raced Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup before he became a Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring winner.
As Mazda celebrates the 35th anniversary of the little two-seat roadster that made its debut as a 1990 model and is now in its fourth generation (main image, all four gens in race-ready spec), the racing history of the car in North America is one to be celebrated as well. From the early days in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Showroom Stock to the creation of Spec Miata and then MX-5 Cup, the Mazda MX-5 Miata has been a springboard for a host of racing careers. But the future impact wasn’t immediately apparent when the first-generation NA Miata hit the racetracks.
“To me, and I think a lot of other people, the Miata was not immediately obvious as this great racecar that was going to be fast around the racetrack,” notes Randy Pobst, who became SCCA’s first National Champion driving a Miata by taking the Showroom Stock C title in 1992 at the Runoffs at Road Atlanta. “What led me to the Miata was the contingency program. Mazda is still very strong in support of motorsports, including all the way down to the autocross level. And they offered contingency awards. If you could win, it was pretty strong money. That’s what led me to the Miata.”
Pobst’s 1992 victory was first of three consecutive SSC titles for Miata drivers, Michael Galati scoring the next two.
In the years since, various iterations of the Miata have won SCAA championships in E Production, F Production, GT-Lite, Super Touring Lite, and Touring 4.
If the Miata has dominated in any sort of automotive competition, it has to be autocross. The time trial format on tight and twisting courses places a premium on handling and car control seemingly designed for the Miata. Marla Davis was the first to take an SCCA Solo National Championship win with a Miata, in C Stock Ladies in 1993. Bob Klingler took the first C Stock open-class victory a year later.
After 1993, there likely hasn’t been a year in which a Miata driver hasn’t taken a national championship. As of 2024, 180 SCCA Solo National Championships have been won in Miatas.
Spec Miata
As popular and successful as the MX-5 Miata was in competition against other marques, it was Spec Miata that provided the stepping-stone for so many. Not only that, it also set the stage for what MX-5 Cup would become.
In the ’90s, another Mazda model – the first-generation RX-7 – had been the basis for a popular spec class. But by the end of the decade, parts were getting harder to find as the newest of the cars were reaching 10-years old. The ruleset had also evolved differently in each region the car was raced.
Texan Shannon McMasters had plied his trade in Spec RX-7, but knew it was time for something new. Working with Steve Sanders at Mazda Motorsports and David del Genio in New Hampshire, McMasters conceived the idea of Spec Miata and began to test it in 1998. They arrived at a package that was fun to drive and cost effective. The new class was first approved for competition in the Southwest Division of SCCA in 1999, with the first race held at Texas World Speedway in July. Other areas of the country shortly followed suit.
The success of Spec Miata lived in the fact that each SCCA Region had the same rules. A Spec Miata built to race in Florida could race in California as well. It proved popular, and the cars and parts were easy to come by; the class incorporated both the 1.6- and 1.8-liter models of the Miata, with the different eras of the car balanced by weight and restrictors. The NB model (1998-2005) would eventually be incorporated as well. Regions of the National Autosport Association (NASA) also began featuring the class in 2000.
A couple of years later, the class had grown exponentially. In 2002, a Spec Miata race was run in support of the Champ Car race at Laguna Seca and featured 70 cars. Asked to define some key moments in the history of Miata racing, former head of Mazda Motorsports and current IMSA President John Doonan cites that event as one of the highlights, along with the Spec Miata SCCA National Championship race under the lights at Daytona International Speedway and the creation of MX-5 Cup.
A year after that Laguna Seca support race, the Pro Spec Miata series was born. Tom Long, who would go on to become a Mazda factory driver in GT and prototypes, was one of the participants in that series, winning the Atlantic Tour in 2005.
“I think what elevated it for me was the fact that you had a level of drivers there that I really respected and looked up to – some that came from World Challenge series and different things like that, where you had the opportunity to showcase your talent against a benchmark and do it at racetracks that that were premier,” Long says of the series.
Todd Buras raced Pro Spec Miata as well, and even after many seasons of pro racing – including MX-5 Cup, where he’s competing again this year – he keeps coming back to Spec Miata.
“When I was professional racing with all the different teams, I had lots of friends still running Spec Miata, and the competitiveness was growing and growing,” the 2019 SCCA Spec Miata (SM) National Champ explains. “In the back of my mind, I couldn’t wait to get back to the fun. Pro is great, but it’s not a family. If you go to an SM race, everybody is family. It doesn’t matter if it’s a team next door, a team down the way; you need a control arm, you need a transmission…everyone pitches in. Everybody has a good time, and it’s just a lot of fun.”
Spec Miata, which became a national class in SCCA in 2006, has grown into one of the largest categories in U.S. amateur racing and spread throughout the world. Estimates put the total number built in the U.S. at more than 3,000 cars, and the class consistently produces intense drafting battles and close racing – so close that the 2023 SCCA National Championship race at VIRginia International Raceway produced co-champions of Preston Pardus and Nick Bruni as they crossed the line in a dead heat.
* Coming soon in Part 2 of the Miata’s journey through motorsports, the car that has so firmly become a mainstay of grassroots racing sets its sights on the professional racing ladder.
* All Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by Michelin races are streamed live on RACER.com and archived on The RACER Channel on YouTube. The 2025 double-header action continues with rounds 3 & 4 on the streets of St. Petersburg on Saturday, March 1 and Sunday, March 2. And for all the latest series news, head to mx-5cup.com.
