January 25, 2013 (DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.). Mazda will be seeking its 24th class win at the Rolex 24 at Daytona endurance race with three all-new 2014 Mazda6 racecars powered by Mazda’s advanced, 400-horsepower SKYACTIV-D Clean Diesel engine. This will be the first-ever diesel powerplant to compete in GRAND-AM racing. The SKYACTIV-D engines are very much production-based, with more than 60-percent stock components, including the engine block and head.
The Car: Model Year 2014 Mazda6 SKYACTIV-D Clean Diesel Racecar
The Engine: A production-based racing version of the same 2.2-liter SKYACTIV-D Clean Diesel engine that will be available in the second half of 2013 for retail sale. The race engine includes over 250 stock components. The block and head are Mazda production parts, identical to that used in their production cars.
The Teams/Drivers:
#70 SpeedSource: Jonathan Bomarito, Marino Franchitti, James Hinchcliffe, Tom Long and Sylvain Tremblay. The two-time GT class winning team (2008 and 2010) will be seeking their third set of Rolex watches.
#00 VISIT FLORIDA Racing/SpeedSource/Yellow Dragon: Joel Miller, Tristan Nunez, Spencer Pigot, Yojiro Terada, and Tristan Vautier. Terada is the veteran Mazda racer who has competed in more than two dozen 24 Hours of Le Mans races, and scored class wins with Mazda at Daytona in 1979, 1982, and 1985 . The others are all racers who have won recent championships within the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Ladder and the Mazda Road to Indy.
In addition to the two SpeedSource cars, there is one customer team, Freedom Autosport with Andrew Carbonell, Tom Long, Rhett O’Doski, and Derek Whitis. Freedom Autosport has been a winning team in the Continental Tire Challenge with Mazda. They are moving up as a complete team.