2017 Mazda RT24-P | Mazda


A full 55 cars ran this year, and despite a few familiar faces, most of it was new. There were the Cadillac DPi-V.R prototypes, which started the race in the top three spots and ended up finishing in the top two spots. There was the Porsche 911 RSR, which bucked 53 years of 911 tradition and had their engines mounted amidships. And then there was the pretty underdog, the Mazda RT24-P, which we were there to follow.
This isn’t Mazda’s first rodeo; the RX-7 won more IMSA races in its class than any other production car ever. In 1991, the rotary-powered 787B prototype won in a stunning victory at Le Mans, making it the only Japanese manufacturer to ever win the world’s most famous 24-hour race. This decade, it had a strong run with its diesel-powered Skyactiv-D prototypes, and since 2015, has been racing traditional gas-powered cars. All this is on top of the thousands of Miatas that race all over the world every weekend.