Racing to win - with Mazda's MX-5

8th February 2010

To celebrate 20 years of the legendary MX-5 roadster, Mazda is planning a very special party!

Superlight line-up

This spectacular line up of MX-5 cars new and old welcomed drivers to the evening hospitality.

The firm has bought together 30 cars to take part in a four hour endurance race. Each car is representing its country and is crewed by journalists. Auto Express is joiing the British contender sharing the car with sister magazine Evo.

You can follow our progress through this unique event with our blog updates, below.

WEDNESDAY 10th FEB

10.30AM:Mazda certainly knows how to throw a birthday party! It's day one of the Mazda Open race at Adria and the sight of 30 race MX-5s smartly painted in national colours is pretty cool. Pictures are coming shortly.

Car 9 in the pits

Our first meeting with the new car!

There's plenty of examples of earlier models from the roadsters 20 year history dotted about, too. But the real action is on the track, it's freezing cold and very damp, so the very twisty Adria circuit is super slippery - see our map, below

The Circuit

Tight turns, hairpins and fast straights promise to ensure the track will offer plenty of thrills and spills!

We've just finished first practice and already it's been a tough one for the number 9 UK car that I am driving. It started well - we set times that placed us in the top ten of this free practice sesssion but unfortunatly one of the drivers in our car had a spin and hit the wall.

This meant my collegue Ollie Marriage from Evo didn't even get to do a lap, which under the rules of the race leaves us with a ten place grid drop!

Back to the mechanics...

A spin in the icy conditions led to a damaged car - and a practice session cut short.

Damage to the car is being looked at as I type, so we've got our figures crossed the number 9 car can be repaired in time for this afternoons practice and superpole session. I'll keep you posted as to any news!

1.00PM: The second practice session starts in 30mins, our mechanics are working hard and are confident the car can be fixed - at least before the 90minute session is over. Although, with my team mates who didin't get any laps getting priority, i'll have to wait and see if there will be time for me to get behind the wheel again today. Fingers crossed!

Good news... the time from my five lap stint was quick enough for 11th place, even though the track dried a little later in the session. A glance at the entry list has shown that the 'journalists' driving for some countries are very fast. The German car has a Porsche Supercup and endurance racer, while the Belgians have an ex F3000 race winner!  It's going to be competitive!

6.00pm: Well, day 1 has come to an end and it's been a hectic one! Our crew did an amazing job and got the car repaired in time for second practice. Although, the crash in session one means we take a 10 place grid drop for the race. Which, is a shame as in the superpole qualifying I came sixth - although that wasn't without incident - superpole means you get one flying lap on your own but a car came out of the pits by mistake and held us up for two corners - nonetheless, we are all happy with sixth place. Although, 16th with our penalty means we will be in the middle of the pack at the start of tomorrows four-hour race.

I am starting the car with Ollie from Evo going second - so look out for some updates after the first hour of racing!  it all starts at 1pm   Can't wait!

THURSDAY 11th FEBRUARY... RACE DAY!

10.00AM: Good news! Our penalty has been taking away so we will start in sixth place! Two hours to the start and the rain has slowed a little bit!

Race over!

The battle of the Mazda driving nations has come to an end and unfortunately it’s not the Union Jack flying above the rostrum.

After taking the start in sixth place I struggled for pace in the wet conditions and fell back. We did at least keep out of trouble, and as the track dried Ollie Marriage from Evo drove a strong stint to keep us in the top ten.

A couple of spins in the next hour from one of our drivers lost us some time, so by the time Mark Ticehurst got in with an hour to go we were down in 18th place. A top effort from him saw us cross the line in 14th after four hours of close racing.

Congratulations to the Belgians for a strong win, but it’s the MX-5 that’s the real winner. Twenty years after its launch in Europe it’s still a fantastic roadster, as today’s racing proved!

Log on soon for some great video, and don’t forget to check out Auto Express in the coming weeks for the full story.

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