BRSCC UPDATES MAZDA MX-5 PROGRAMME FOR 2021 WITH NEW CLUBMAN CHAMPIONSHIP ALONGSIDE EXISTING MX-5 CHAMPIONSHIP

The British Racing & Sports Car Club are delighted to announce an innovative change to our Mazda MX-5 programme for the 2021 season, with the addition of the new Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship.  

The hugely successful and popular Mazda MX-5 Championship for MK1 cars will continue to provide racers with maximum levels of competition, and track time consisting of a single 20-minute qualifying session followed by 3 x 20-minute races spread over the event.  

The all-new Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship will offer MK1 competitors an alternative format of a single 15-minute qualifying session, followed by 2 x 15-minute races, held over a single day.  

To allow maximum efficiency for race teams and championship management, both the existing MX-5 Championship and Clubman championships, as well as the MX-5 SuperCup for MK3 models, will take place on the same circuits and events.  

BRSCC Chief Operating Officer Paul McErlean provided the following reasoning behind the club’s decision to introduce the new additional Clubman championship, stating “Whilst we as a club, along with our Mazda MX-5 coordinator team, are immensely proud of the popularity and grid sizes delivered by our existing MK1 MX-5 championship, we are fully aware of the level of commitment in terms of days away from home, testing costs, tyres and fuel it takes to participate competitively within this format. Our grid sizes prove that many of our racers and teams are more than happy with this, hence us retaining the 4 x 20-minute session format with our existing MX-5 Championship.  

Through ongoing communication between the club, our racers, and teams, it had also become clear to us that a number of our members would much prefer to be provided with an option to continue the enjoyment of racing their cars in an unchanged technical spec, but with a bit less commitment needed in terms of their resources and time. 

These discussions led us to make an approach to Motorsport UK with a request to offer our competitors both options. We were delighted with the positive response we were given, and even more so that Motorsport UK allowed our new Clubman format to operate under full championship status from the outset”. 

BRSCC Race Operations, and MX-5 Championship Coordinator, Mandy Andrew added  “In introducing this additional format, it shows that we are always listening to our customers and that we are focussed on delivering the very best value and support possible. I’m personally delighted that we are able to continue to offer the full 4 x 20-minute session format with our existing MX-5 Championship, and even more so that we have been able to add the new MX-5 Clubman format for those competitors who may prefer that. 

Myself and my coordination team will continue to provide the highest levels of support possible, and although the addition of the new Clubman championship is going to make us even busier over a race weekend, it’s what our customers want and that’s what is most important to us.“ 

The 2021 provisional event calendar will be published tomorrow (18th Nov), and further exciting news regarding tyre costs and championship sponsorship support will be shared in the coming days.