MX-5: Series 2009 schedule announced

SCCA Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup 2009 Schedule Announced

TOPEKA, Kan. (Jan. 10, 2009) -- For its fourth season, the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup will expand to 10 rounds, making stops at some of the finest road courses in North America, as well as several new venues.

The 2009 MX-5 Cup season begins as the previous two did, as part of The Mitty Classic at Road Atlanta. MX-5 Cup will join Historic Sportscar Racing, May 1 -- 3, to showcase the modern fun of MX-5 Cup alongside the classic racing machines of years past.

Two weeks later, MX-5 Cup is off to beautiful Monterey, Calif., where the series made its debut in 2006. MX-5 Cup joins the Grand-Am Rolex Series and KONI Challenge, May 15 -- 17, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the Monterey Festival of Speed.

A doubleheader at New Jersey Motorsports Park, in Millville, N.J., follows on June 12 -- 14. The Mazda Grand Prix will bring the Mazda racing family together, as MX-5 Cup joins Star Mazda and the Atlantic Championship at the recently constructed Thunderbolt Raceway.

The halfway point of the season is marked by two tracks new to MX-5 Cup. On July 17 -- 19, the series joins Grand-Am once again for the Porsche 250 weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Ala. The teams will then make a short trip north to meet up with their fellow Mazda series once again as well as the SPEED World Challenge Championships, July 24 -- 26, at the Autobahn Country Club. The Mazda Grand Prix marks the first professional event at the Autobahn Country Club, which is located in Joliet, Ill., just outside of Chicago.

The MX-5 caravan won't have to travel too far for the following round in Elkhart Lake, Wis. For the second year in-a-row, the series will take part in the combined American LeMans Series/SPEED World Challenge weekend at Road America, Aug. 14 -- 16.

From one four-mile track to another, MX-5 heads to Miller Motorsports Park with Grand-Am, Sept. 18 -- 20. The Tooele, Utah course has hosted a round of MX-5 Cup action in each of the series' previous three years.

The 2009 season ends Oct. 2 -- 4, with a doubleheader at scenic VIRginia International Raceway, in Alton, Va. It will be the series' first trek to VIR, where it joins KONI Challenge.

"I couldn't be happier with the 2009 MX-5 Cup schedule," Mazda North American Operations Alternative Marketing Manager Jim Jordan said. "It's the perfect mix of classic American road courses and new, exciting venues. There's something there for everyone, which will encourage the kind of racing we've come to expect from this great series."

"SCCA Pro Racing and Mazda have worked together to create a fantastic schedule for MX-5 in 2009," SCCA Pro Racing President and CEO Robert Wildberger said. "It's great to see MX-5 heading to tracks SCCA Pro Racing has yet to venture, like Autobahn Country Club and Barber Motorsports Park. We're proud to watch MX-5 Cup expand the SCCA Pro Racing footprint."

With an outstanding schedule in place, all races broadcast on cable TV and the continuance of Playboy as a title sponsor, MX-5 Cup appears poised for another successful season. The Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup also remains a part of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Ladder, offering the 2009 MX-5 Cup Champion a Mazda ride in SPEED Touring Car and welcoming one amateur racer to the series via the MX-5 Cup Shootout for Mazda road racing champions.

-credit: scca pro racing