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Club racers rev up automakers' interest

By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY

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Amateur racer Jason Isley of Ladera Ranch, Calif., drives his Mazda RX-8 at the 2007 Sports Car Club of America Solo National Championships.

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Isley, with wife Jennifer and daughter Jessica, readies his car for a race. Work includes removing the baby seat and adding the door numbers.

IRVINE, Calif. — Like any other working stiff, Jason Isley commutes to the office in his sporty coupe during the week.
But come Friday, he wrestles the baby carrier out of the back seat of the Mazda RX-8, wrenches on a set of extra-grippy tires and slaps some magnetic racing numbers on the sides. Plop on a helmet, and the transformation is complete: family man to top-performing race car driver.

Isley and his wife, Jennifer, are among the nation's thousands of amateur racers. And automakers are increasingly paying more attention to Walter Mitty types such as the Isleys.

Auto companies offer discounts, prize money, free technical advice and sometimes even cars to amateur racers, not just professionals. While club racers don't generate the headlines of the professionals, their competition creates lots of goodwill, brand loyalty, positive word of mouth and the envy of their more pedestrian workmates — all of which helps sell cars and burnish brand image.

Few automakers are as deeply involved with amateurs as Mazda.

"We're here to help people race," said Robert Davis, a senior vice president for Mazda's North America operation, at a press event here last month. "Our core values are to have as many people racing Mazdas as possible."

Mazda claims 9,000 racers and says more of its cars zoom around road-race tracks on any given weekend than any other nameplate.

"It sells cars. There's not a doubt that Mazda is the predominant car out there," says Isley, 34, who works as an editor for SportsCar magazine during the week.

Isley started racing in 1993 after he traded in his Pontiac Firebird for a Chevrolet Corvette. He eventually turned to a Sports Car Club of America series called autocross, which involves racing against the clock through a cone course rather than against other drivers.

Along the way, he met his future wife when she came to race her Mazda Miata in 1994. They and daughter Jessica, 2, live in the Ladera Ranch section of Orange County, Calif.

Autocross rewards driving finesse and the car's handling more than flat-out power. Isley says his wife has beaten him three times in events in which they have both participated.

He says Mazda supports the couple's racing efforts by giving them about a $3,000 break from the price of a new RX-8 and discounts on parts. Occasionally, Mazda helps bankroll their racing. He received about $800 for each of his three autocross national championships (2005-2007). Jennifer won $800 for a women's title last year.

Certainly, that's small by NASCAR standards. But Isley says that since his competition class requires few car modifications, the family racing budget is only about $6,000 for the year — mostly entry fees and travel as far as the Midwest. In the past few years, about half has been covered by awards purses, discounts and sponsorships.

Deeper into racing is Laura Olson, 46, an operations manager for a health care provider, who competes on tracks in a Mazda MX-5.

Olson, who is also based in Orange County, says her hobby takes about three-quarters of her spare time, and the cost this year approaches $100,000.

"If I don't find funding this year, I will pull it out of savings," she says. Most of the budget goes to transporting her race car to tracks around the USA and Canada.

She has her own racing shop and subleases to two other drivers. She credits Mazda officials for helping her with price breaks on cars and parts. "Each year I say, 'I don't know how I can do this another year.' "

Yet, she always does. "You meet a lot of really great people," Olson says of her motivation.

While Mazda's program may have more participants, other automakers say they also are involved in helping amateurs:

•Ford Motor. (F) The Detroit automaker sells sprint cars with Ford engines and three levels of race-ready Mustangs. It even offers whole cars through its racing parts catalog.

They range from the 325-horsepower Mustang FR500S for $75,000 to a 550-horsepower FR500GT for $225,000. The S, with 77 built to date, is raced through a program at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

•Porsche. Dozens of Porsche clubs around the country offer amateur racing, says Andy Schupack, spokesman for Porsche Motorsport. Porsche offers its racers free consultations with factory engineers.

•Honda. (HMC) From off-roading to drag racing, Honda says it has a broad-based program to support many forms of amateur racing. Honda gives worthy participants prize money and racing parts. "It's important from a corporate standpoint because racing is part of the DNA," says Honda spokesman T.E. McHale. "We want to be supportive of people who come through the ranks, who give their weekends to racing Honda products."

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