Well, looks like we have more than enough interest and Mazdaspeed Motorsports has okayed my budget to feed us and the track workers for two days. Now all I need is to submit my numbers with my proposal to Mazdaspeed Motorsports. We have Mazda Owners coming from all over, MI, IN, PA, DE, CT, NY, NJ, Toronto and a couple of guys from Nova Scotia!!!

I want to start a sign up list, so I can track the number of cars and drivers we'll have. We will be holdiong the event @ BeaveRun and it will be the weekend of October 11-12, 2008. The estimated cost is $150 for both days (tentative) and when all is finalized, we'll have the full schedule out. So sign up and we'll have one hell of an event!

Edit: Just received an e mail from Jon Mariachi, the owner of Racers Edge, if he has no prior commitments, he will bring his personal RX-7 out, maybe the GT car as well!

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1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8

Info from previous interest thread:

As some of you may know, my wife and I put on Mazda Corrals for Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development, all across the country. We know all of the teams and drivers that are associated with Mazdaspeed. A number of drivers want to have a track day, similar to what just took place in Chicago this past weekend, but on a some what larger scale.

I have been in contact with Robert Davis, V.P. of Mazdaspeed Motorsports and Joh Doonan, who we work closely with on the Mazda Corral. Along with the aforementioned gentleman, drivers like Charles Espenlaub, Michael Galati, Nick Ham, Sylvain Tremblay, Chip Herr and many more want to have a Mazda Owners Only event.

I am currently drafting a proposal to present to Mazdaspeed Motorsports, but I want to first show that we'll have enough interest here in the Mid-West/Great Lakes Region. We are looking at a 2 day event, where classroom and in car instruction from some of our favorite drivers.

We are looking at breakfast and dinner for both days and were are looking at a range of $150-$200 for the event. We will also look into Mazda's partners to participate in helping with the event as well, BP, Castrol, Yokohama and Mothers to name just a few.

So if you can, please take the time to let me know if we have any members who would like to participate in this type of event. We are looking to have the event late October or early November. If we pull this off this year, we will be makig this a national event, with the country being divided in to 3-4 regions., with each hosting a simultaneous events.

The event may take place even sooner, I have a number of inquiries out to a number of tracks in the Great Lakes Region. The reason for the lateness is that the factory drivers really want to be involved in this and their season ends in the middle of October.

As far as tracks, BeaveRun comes to mind as a place where we could hold the event It has plenty of runoff area and it is a great place for Novices to learn and the course is fun to drive. Nelson Ledges, would be cheap, but unless you have a lot of seat time, it would not be a great place for people to learn as the surface has a lot of patches on it and if someone makes a mistake, there is little to no room to recover.

I have about a 1 1/2 months to get my numbers to the powers that be @ Mazdaspeed Motorsports. I am sure that we can have it by Mid-October, as it seems that we'll have a number of serious owners that want to particpate at this point. I will keep you guys informed as top the progress.

I have contacted all of the tracks, including Mid-Ohio, so basically what it comes down to is availability and costs. I am getting PM's from a lot of owners from various boards, including my friends from Canada.

I am putting together a power point presentation for the powers that be @ Mazdaspeed Motorsports. I am confident we can pull this off and meet and exceed the expectations of Mazdaspeed Motorpsorts.

Thanks for jumping in with your opinions and support, it does make it easier, when I have members who are willing to step up.


Looks like thigs are picking up from all over the region and all of the other Mazda forums too! Looks like by estmate we have about a 100 solid responses for owners. Marc Miller, Co-Founder of Mazda Owners Club of America has 50 people and we have had over 100 responses so far, so, based on that we know we can have 100 people for sure.

Once I get closer to the 250-300 responses, I will submit my findings to Mazdaspeed Motorsport. Again, a number of members have offered a lot of great ideas and suggestions, I will take all into consideration and pass them along.

Tireman, has sent an inquiry to Pirelli to see if they would like to step up and be a part of this. We're hoping that they will see this as a big positive and bring out some product and schwag to promote their product. They are the official tire of Grand AM and KONI Challenge.

Like I said, everything is going well and it keeps getting better.

Adam, good to see you on the boards, and I will be contacting you directly when I send all of the information to John Doonan, Jim Jordan and Robert Davis of course.

Ok, now to the business at hand. One of the most important factors in making this event work is affordability, first and foremost. I particpate in a lot of these events and with 2 days sessions running from $365-$400 for a two day event, makes it difficult for even me justifying the cost. Couple that with my wife who drives in HPDE's as well, you are looking @ nearly $1,000.

Tracks like Mid-Ohio, Road America, Watkins Glen, cost a great deal of moeny to rent and with the late start, availabilty is an issue. So the goal is to make this event affordable to all, to make a point to Mazdaspeed Motorsports, that we can have events like this across the country and show the benefit of these types of events.

Ok, Pirelli is on board with us and wants to work with us. Here is the e mail I have received from Pirelli.

Marlon,

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. End of month, end of quarter, holiday weekend - guess I could think of more excuses!! I contacted my Motorsports/PR guy at corporate and he told me to pursue the opportunity. I just read the posts on the link and it appears you are trying to determine a place + time. I definitely want to have involvement in your event. If the timing is right (appears you're shooting for a weekend in October) I could be there and have some tires on display and provide some goodies to hand-out. Once I know all of the details and you can tell me number of attendees, I will request a set of tires to give away if the event justifies it. I'll work w/ Mike Jahnz on tire fitments for your vehicles.

Thanks,
Roger G. Brace
PIRELLI TIRE, LLC
Regional Sales Manager
Great Lakes Region

So, as you can see , we've generated interest with Pirelli and they want to participate and be a part of this. This will more than likely lead to others wanting to jump in as well. I will keep you informed as to any all progress with this event.

Well, here is the latest update, we are looking to have a dealer contribute some cash for the track. We are also looking for some associate sponsors, which, I already have contacted a few.

I am also going to be contacting a few of the teams to see if their major sponsors will be able to lend a hand as well and possibly see if WC Vision will want to get involved as well.

We are going to try and have this wrapped up by the end of this month and proceed from there. We've had a lot of positive feedback and interest from all over the Mid-West, Northeast and East Coast as well.

So, I will have another update for you soon, as we are getting the ball rolling for you guys.

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 Kick Ass VELOCITY Red RX8 :eyetwitch

I already committed to be there at the Cleveland6Club. Subscribing here too.

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8
6. Tom Cabral - 2007 RX8

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8
6. Tom Cabral - 2007 RX8
7. Kyle Heller - 2005 RX-8


If things go as they are projected to at the moment when will money be due? At the location or will we need to pay in advance? I'll check with a few other Mazda owners as well and see if they are interested.

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8
6. Tom Cabral - 2007 RX8
7. Kyle Heller - 2005 RX-8
8. William Wolford - 2004 RX-8

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8
6. Tom Cabral - 2007 RX8
7. Kyle Heller - 2005 RX-8
8. William Wolford - 2004 RX-8
9. Rick King - 2005 RX8


Very interested in this. Will there be newbie training for people like myself?????

I'm signed up on the NEPOC list, so not putting myself on this one, but I'll be there (unless something falls through).

Very interested in this. Will there be newbie training for people like myself?????

He Dagious. HPDE stands for High Performance Driving Education. Basically this is a school to learn how to drive your car on a road track so rookie training is part of the package. At the bottom of this link there are a number of good articles for folks new to HPDEs:

http://www.nasaproracing.com/hpde/

Every organization has different guidelines on how their schools are conducted but for the most part if you can follow the information and requirements from those articles you should be good for this event.

Hopefully as it gets closer to event day the folks from MazdaSpeed can give us more info on requirements for this particular event.

Very interested in this. Will there be newbie training for people like myself?????You will not be allowed to drive without an instructor. You will have an instructor with you at all times. Unless you're in advanced classes. At least, that's how almost all HPDEs are (high performance driver ed).

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8
6. Tom Cabral - 2007 RX8
7. Kyle Heller - 2005 RX-8
8. William Wolford - 2004 RX-8
9. Rick King - 2005 RX8
10. Danny Chao - 2004 RX-8

It's about time that I de-lurk. I heard about this on the NORA and RacePA forums but the NORA guys sounded like they didn't want to open the event up too much (I don't know any NORA guys). But if I drive a Mazda I'm in right?

Yes, Mazda owners are given preference. We are in the process of finalizing a few things and will keep everyone updated. Once everything is confirmed, you will notified when and where to register and pay for the event.

I will have further updates next week. I can tell you that Ben Devlin and Gerardo Bonilla of B-K Motorsports will attending the event as well.

ask them if they're gonna be writing down names/vins so they can void our warranty.
if they say no, i'm in.

edit: i think. and i'd be using either my 05 rx8 or a miata, if i can find one to buy by then..

It is basically a driving school so they have no reason to void any warranties. And why would Mazda bring together a bunch of their owners to teach them how to drive their cars only to void their warranties?

Because they can make money off the school, and save money off the warrantys.
I would not be surprised.

Marlon would not promote something that was like that. Marlon is a great guy and really goes out of his way to support us Mazda owners.

Because they can make money off the school, and save money off the warrantys.
I would not be surprised.

Huh?

Going on a race track doesn't void your warranty in any way, shape, or form. Mazda not only allows people to put their car on a track but encourages it. Their current marketing campaign revolves around more Mazdas competing on weekends than any other manufacturer.

There's only two ways you can void your warranty. The first would be if you 'tracked' your car in such a way that you began replacing significant parts of your car with aftermarket or unwarrantied (ie. from the Mazdaspeed Continuity racing competition program) parts but even then the warranty is only voided for specific parts of your car (ie. suspension would be voided if you put on sways but engine would still be warrantied). The other way would be if you drove your car like a freakin' retard going 10k RPM just to see what part of your car breaks first. But that's true whether you're driving retarded on the road or on the track.

And at $150 a pop you're nuts if you think they're making any money off of this.

We are currently working with a local dealership to get them to participate in this event. We will be have a dedicated sign up page, where you can pay, get tech information etc. We will be offering some hot laps in a couple of MX-5 Cup cars and a couple of KONI Challenge cars.

Some of the organizers of this event, are currently racing across the country, so we will be having our conference call on Monday or Tuesday to solidify the event. It is still going to happen and it will be a great event.

I will update you guys by the middle of next week.

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8
6. Tom Cabral - 2007 RX8
7. Kyle Heller - 2005 RX-8
8. William Wolford - 2004 RX-8
9. Rick King - 2005 RX8
10. Danny Chao - 2004 RX-8
11. Phaedon Hain - 2005 RX-8

Hope I'm not crashing your RX-8 party, but the news of this event is starting to make the rounds into other forums. :)

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8
6. Tom Cabral - 2007 RX8
7. Kyle Heller - 2005 RX-8
8. William Wolford - 2004 RX-8
9. Rick King - 2005 RX8
10. Danny Chao - 2004 RX-8
11. Phaedon Hain - 2005 RX-8
12. Bruce White - 1993 Miata or 2006 MX-5

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8
6. Tom Cabral - 2007 RX8
7. Kyle Heller - 2005 RX-8
8. William Wolford - 2004 RX-8
9. Rick King - 2005 RX8
10. Danny Chao - 2004 RX-8
11. Phaedon Hain - 2005 RX-8
12. Bruce White - 1993 Miata
13. James Roberts - 2007 RX-8

Hope I'm not crashing your RX-8 party, but the news of this event is starting to make the rounds into other forums. :)

Marlon drives an orange Protege. I'm certain he doesn't mind. ;)

It's early yet but I'd be surprised if 8s make up the majority of drivers. Anytime I go to any event it's hard to walk around without tripping over a Miata. :lol2:

Hope I'm not crashing your RX-8 party, but the news of this event is starting to make the rounds into other forums. :)

This is not an 8 party...but a Mazda party. We just don't have too many non-8's here. Marlon...do you have an approximate number of people that have said they would go?

From what I understand, there's a ton of non-8s from other forums.

shouldnt this be in the northeast forum? it is in PA....

shouldnt this be in the northeast forum? it is in PA....

The location of the track didn't drive this so much as the interest and initiative of the people involved. The track selected ended up in PA for practical reasons, though you can practically hit BeaveRun with a stone from the Ohio border.

I don't know if there's been a post on the NE forum or not, but there's nothing stopping you from posting a link if you think there would be interest.

Is this the official sign up list, then? It sounds like similar sign up lists are in several other forums.

This is the "I will be there" thread so Marlon can get some committed numbers together for Mazda and everyone else. Marlon stated that later there will be an official sign-up site in which you will actually have to pay. But there are a LOT of other forums that were invited so you could see it elseware.

ask them if they're gonna be writing down names/vins so they can void our warranty.
if they say no, i'm in.

edit: i think. and i'd be using either my 05 rx8 or a miata, if i can find one to buy by then..


First off, Mazda speed Motorsports is behind the event, secondly there is dealer involvement behind the event, thirdly, this is NOT A TIMED EVENT, therefore it is not a race and the warranty cannot be voided!

OK, to the business at hand, I will be posting the information regarding the format of the event, as this event will run different than most. Once I have the format, I will explain why Mazdaspeed Motorsports do what they do. I can tell you it involves, video, classroom and a lot of lead and follow fo rthe novices.

This is not some free for all, where you get out on the track and run balls to the wall, it is not a race, where we see who has the fastest car, etc. It is an event where you will learn the basic skills of driving a car on a road course at speed. You will discover your limitations, your cars limitations as well.

So stay tuned for more info and we will have this wrapped up by the end of the month.

1. Matt Montes - 1991 Miata or 06 RX8
2. Jeff Renz - 2004 RX-8
3. Ryan Kelley - 2004 RX-8
4. Mark Domo - 2004 RX8
5. Tony Crino - 2004 RX8
6. Tom Cabral - 2007 RX8
7. Kyle Heller - 2005 RX-8
8. William Wolford - 2004 RX-8
9. Rick King - 2005 RX8
10. Danny Chao - 2004 RX-8
11. Phaedon Hain - 2005 RX-8
12. Bruce White - 1993 Miata
13. James Roberts - 2007 RX-8
14. Tim Bowser - 2004 RX-8

One more for the road, coming from Easton MD.

Yep, another RX-8, pretty much stock at this time (rescued recently from a BMW dealership :) ). This would be my first meet of any sort, but not the first Mazda.

Sig and details soon, 2004 LY 6MT Sport.

Mike Darnell - 2005 RX-8

Diego Villalpando 2005 Rx8 ..... It all depends if i can get the money saved up for the trip, and no snow on the ground.

Any updates on this?

Sorry guys, but we could not pull this one off, as we needed addidional sponsorship for the event. We were way short on funding, needed an additional $10,000 to make this affordable for the majority of Mazda owners. the track rental is $5,200 per day, which does not include insurance and the workers, medical, wreckers etc.

We could not get a local dealer to step up and no additional sponsors to sign on woth us as well, as most of their budgets for 2008 have been allocated for other events and for race teams.

We are looking to do this for next year and I am going to take the lead on this for myself and not use MOCA's formula for the event, as MAzda wanted to use their formula to run the event.

Again, sorry that we didn't get this done and even if we got half of the $10,000, the cost would have been $350 for one day and $325 for two days.

Again, I will be working on an event for next year, so if anyone wants to assist me, let me know

poop.

Oh well! Marlon, thanks for all the efforts in trying to put this together! Looking forward to next year! (and I'll probably see you early November)

Sorry guys, but we could not pull this one off,

Very sorry it didn't work out.

However, if you want to go for it next year, get in touch with Dave at MazdaDriverS.com (http://MazdaDriverS.com/). He runs several track events every year including an occasional Mazda car show, and is a huge Mazda fan with a couple of his own RX-7's. If anybody can help you make it happen, he can.

- Bill