Sunrise, FL -- With support from Mazda and Mazdaspeed, SpeedSource Race Engineering will campaign a four car fleet of Mazda RX-8’s in the Grand Am Cup Sports Touring division next season in a bid to claim the Manufacturer's Championship. The four car fleet will be led by professional Champion Sylvain Tremblay and Rising Star David Haskell.

"I am truly excited to be associated with the SpeedSource Engineering team once again at the professional level of motorsports," commented Steve Sanders, Manager, Mazdaspeed Motorsports. "Their proven track record in the Grand-Am Cup series, and with Mazda RX-7 in years past, gives me great confidence they will put together a competitive Mazda RX-8 program. Mazda has enjoyed a decade-long relationship with the SpeedSource crew. They have demonstrated their engineering expertise and preparation skills, having won the Speedvision Cup Team Championship in 1998 (1993-95 RX-7) and with the dominance of the SCCA ITS class (1986-91 RX-7)."

The Mazda RX-8 is powered by the RENESIS 1.3 liter rotary which was awarded International Engine of the Year. With 238 horsepower being driven to the wheels by a six speed manual transmission the vehicle will make for a very potent race car.

As the 2004 season approaches, stay tuned to Rotary News (http://www.RotaryNews.com) and Speed Source (http://www.speedsourceinc.com) for further developments.

Thanks for the info, Dan! (Rotarynews.com)

http://www.grandamerican.com/competition/2004_Cup_Rules.html

Here are the qualifying times (http://www.fastmachines.com/archives/001445.php) from the Grand-Am Daytona 250.

The Speedsource RX-8's placed 25th, 26th, 28th and 32nd. There were 60 qualifiers. The fastest lap was a Porsche 996:

1. (91) Kenny Wilden, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Robert Julien, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, GS, Doncaster Racing Porsche 996, 02:06.106, 101.629.

which was 7.800s faster than the leading RX-8:

25. (70) David Haskell, Plantation, Fla.; Sylvain Tremblay, Sunrise, Fla., ST, SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, 02:13.906, 95.709.

26. (68) Scott Schlesinger, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; David Tuaty, Miami, Fla., ST, SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, 02:14.185, 95.510.

28. (67) Nick Fanelli, Riverview, Fla.; Rich Walker, Wellington, Fla.; Gary Wollersheim, Stuart, Fla., ST, SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, 02:14.275, 95.446.

32. (66) Marcelo Abello, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Benoit Theetge, Beauport, Quebec, Canada; Justin Bell, Delray Beach, Fla., ST, SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, 02:15.262, 94.749.

Leading the RX-8 were mostly Porsche 996s, 350Zs and SVT Cobras.

The Mazda Rotary Car Club of Florida stopped by to check out Speed Source and their race prepped RX-8s. The article and some great pics are posted over at Rotary News (http://rotarynews.com/view.php?id=235).

Does anyone know if the qualifying and/or race will be televised. If so when and where? Thanks.:p

Race gets televised on Feb 14 at 4PM on Speed... don't think qualifying gets televised.

Broadcast Schedule (http://www.speedtv.com/programs/122/)