What is the Mazda Road to 24?

Mazda Road to 24 logo for 2016

With this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona marking the start of another season of sports car racing, it seems the perfect time to explain the Mazda Road to 24 (#MRT24).

Mazda currently holds a 57 percent share of the entries in grassroots road racing in the Sports Car Club of America, and the #MRT24 provides a distinct path for young racers to climb to the top levels of sports car racing.

Since 2007, Mazda has provided more than $12.6 million in scholarships in the #MRT24 and the Mazda Road to Indy (#MRTI) programs.

In open-wheel racing, the Mazda Road to Indy is a clear-cut ladder from grassroots racing all the way to the Verizon IndyCar Series, and is considered the finest in the world for developing young open-wheel drivers. Now, Mazda's similarly wide-ranging effort in sports cars has a name to match: the Mazda Road to 24. (The program had previously been called the Mazda SportsCar Racing Academy.)

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]“We love to support talented drivers to help them reach their dreams," said John Doonan, director of Mazda Motorsports in North America. “We don't have the budget to sponsor all of them, but we do have the means to create a series like the Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires, or to be title sponsor and engine provider for the Mazda Prototype Lites presented by Cooper Tires. Above and beyond those categories, the system is designed to offer scholarships to Mazda-powered championship-winning drivers as they climb the ladder to reach the most prominent endurance races around the world. It's far more than money that we provide, as we also offer training and guidance in marketing, sponsorship, media and many other aspects of the business of motorsports."

The Mazda Road to 24 program involves five distinct steps:

The ladder

1.) The Mazda Road to 24 Shootout: The entry-level scholarship for the sports car ladder is the MRT24 Shootout, an annual two-day event where many grassroots champions compete to earn a $100,000 scholarship into the Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires.

2.) Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires: The series enters an exciting new era as the Mazda-built Global MX-5 Cup cars are made available – ready to race – at $53,000. Based upon the new fourth-generation MX-5 released in 2015, more than 80 race cars have already been sold. The series features fierce 45-minute sprint races with large fields of Mazda MX-5s racing side-by-side. The series champion earns a $200,000 scholarship to be invested in one of the Mazda ladder categories.

3.) Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge: Mazda powered the driver co-champions in the Street Tuner (ST) category of the 2015 Continental Tire season in a third-generation MX-5, which earns them a future chance to test the Mazda Prototype car. In 2016, Mazda expects up to seven MX-5s will race in the ST category at the season-opener in Daytona.

4.) Mazda Prototype Lites presented by Cooper Tires: Mazda is now the title sponsor for the series that provides equal chassis and Mazda power to all entrants, which emphasizes Mazda's “Driving Matters" mantra. When everything else is equal, the driver is the determining factor. The champion earns a future test in the Mazda Prototype and IMSA-backed “premium entries" the following year in the Prototype Challenge series. (Estimated as a $100,000 value.)

5.) WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: The top level of North American sports car racing features two Mazda Prototypes with four factory-backed drivers who all have a background in the Mazda Road to 24 or the Mazda Road to Indy.

Meet the 2016 Mazda Factory Drivers and Mazda Road to 24 Scholarship Winners

Mazda Prototype Team

Jonathan Bomarito

Jonathan Bomarito – Bomarito is co-driver of the No. 55 Mazda Prototype, and has a lengthy career with Mazda-powered cars, including open-wheel and sports cars. Among his victories, the most notable is winning the GT class title with Mazda at the 2010 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Tom Long – Long is co-driver of the No. 70 Mazda Prototype, and was the lead development driver of the Mazda Global MX-5 Cup car in 2015. A former MAZDASPEED Miata Cup champion, Long is a renowned driver coach and moved through the Mazda grassroots sports car program to reach the Prototype team.

Joel Miller – Miller is co-driver of the No. 70 Mazda Prototype in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. As a degreed mechanical engineer, he is the featured presenter in the national-touring Mazda STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education program R.A.C.E. (Racing Accelerates Creative Education). Miller is also the official driver coach/mentor of the Mazda Road to Indy program.

Tristan Nunez – The 20-year old Nunez is co-driver of the No. 55 Mazda Prototype. Nunez has his own foundation to battle the dangers of texting and distracted driving, and gives presentations to school kids across the U.S. He holds numerous records as the youngest driver to win a major North American professional sports car race and championship as a teenager.

Prototype Challenge and Mazda Prototype Lites

Kenton Koch – Koch is a multi-time Mazda scholarship winner, grabbing back-to-back championships in the MX-5 Cup and the Mazda Prototype Lites series. In the Lites category, Koch won 11 of 14 races to dominate the 2015 season championship. As a Mazda factory driver, he is currently scheduled to drive in several of the IMSA endurance races, including the Rolex 24, in the Prototype Challenge category.

Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Series

Andrew Carbonell – A native of Miami who has made a career as one of the top Mazda MX-5 racers in the world, Carbonell helped develop the new Global MX-5 Cup car, and finished third in points in the IMSA Continental Tires SportsCar Challenge in 2015. He will again drive a Freedom Autosport MX-5 as a factory driver in the Continental Tire Series in 2016.

Liam Dwyer – Retired U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Dwyer completed his first full season in the Continental Tire series in 2015, earning one victory with Carbonell at Mazda Raceway and a sixth-place finish in the season standings. Dwyer was gravely injured in Afghanistan in 2011, and has survived 50 surgeries after the loss of his left leg and other severe wounds. Dwyer, a Mazda factory driver, races with a special prosthetic leg that is engineered for rapid driver changes.

Stevan McAleer – McAleer, the 2012 MX-5 Cup series champion, added to his Mazda-powered titles in 2015 by taking the drivers championship in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge ST category. He will drive an MX-5 for the Freedom Autosport team in 2016, paired with co-driver Chad McCumbee. The Mazda-backed duo are also team owners in the Global MX-5 Cup series.

Chad McCumbee – A former NASCAR Sprint Cup stock car racer, McCumbee is an excellent road racer, sharing the 2015 Continental Tire drivers championship with co-driver McAleer. He will again team with McAleer as team owner at McCumbee McAleer Racing in the Global MX-5 Cup and will be driving for Freedom Autosport in the Continental Tire series.

Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup

John Dean II – Dean won the 2015 Battery Tender MX-5 Cup championship as a driver and team owner. The Florida racer has utilized a portion of his $200,000 Mazda championship scholarship to purchase two new Global MX-5 Cup cars for the 2016 season.

Robby Foley – Foley won the Mazda scholarship for winning the season championship in the Skip Barber Mazdaspeed Pro Challenge series in 2015. He will race the entire Global MX-5 Cup series in 2016 with the Mazda scholarship.

Glenn McGee – McGee is the latest driver to join the Mazda scholarship program after being selected at the Mazda Road to 24 Shootout in late 2015. McGee's background is unique, as he received a Shootout entry via iRacing, the online computer racing simulation site. He was able to translate his online success into a Mazda scholarship and full-time entry into the Global MX-5 Cup for 2016.

Mazda Motorsports

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Mazda Motorsports boasts the most comprehensive auto racing development ladder system of any auto manufacturer in the world. The Mazda Road to 24 program offers a number of scholarships to advance drivers up the sports car racing ladder which culminates in the Mazda Prototype team that races in the top level of IMSA sports car racing in North America. The Mazda Road to Indy is a similar system in open-wheel racing, which includes USF2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights racing categories with Mazda power. The new Global MX-5 Cup car makes its debut in 2016, with affordable, turnkey race cars available direct from Mazda. In the grassroots categories, more Mazdas road race on any given weekend in North America than any other manufacturer.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through nearly 700 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at www.mazdausamedia.com.