The United Sports Car Championship is, as its name states, a sports car racing series that was originally announced in March of this year, being peppered with details until its 2014 debut was also announced. It’s set to take place on tracks from both the US and Canada and have its entrants split into four distinct classes: Prototype (P), Prototype Challenge (PC), GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD).
Now, Mazda has officially confirmed its participation, in the Prototype class, where it plans to use two SKYACTIV diesel-powered racers whose engines will be very closely related to those used in their road cars.
“The SKYACTIV-D Smart Diesel race engine is a true production-based engine and a carry-over from the development work done with the Mazda6 GX-class racing cars,” says the Japanese company.”The engine is 51 percent stock by parts count, and 63 percent stock by weight. Mazda chose this path as it is the most honest way to demonstrate the performance, quality, durability, and reliability of Mazda powerplants.”
The cars are expected to make their public debut, at the “Roar before the 24” testing session between January 3-5.
However, the Japanese manufacturer is also officially looking into modifying its successful (and nice looking) 6 sedan diesel racer into a GT Daytona class car, though that ambition was not fully detailed in the supplied press release.
By Andrei Nedelea
PHOTO GALLERY
