Mazda Heritage Collection Wraps 2024 Season with Two Wins at Sebring

SEBRING, Fla. (Dec. 10, 2024) – The Mazda Heritage Collection’s racing season came to an end Saturday, December 7 at Sebring International Raceway. After a year of events that spread across the country for the Mazda Heritage Collection, the 2024 season with HSR concluded on another high note, as two of the collection’s entries earned wins.

The Mazda Heritage Collection represents Mazda’s ongoing commitment to celebrating the brand’s rich history in motorsports and bringing that story into the future. By preserving iconic machines from different chapters of the Mazda Motorsports history, and taking them to the track to compete, Mazda continues to celebrate its racing past as well as its continued presence in the sport to this day.

That celebration included the invitation of 2024 Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Champion Gresham Wagner to be a part of the driving line up for the season finale event at Sebring, and the two-time champion clearly relished the opportunity to compete on board the historic machinery.

The three Mazda Heritage Collection cars raced together on track, though in two different categories. The 1989 Mazda 767B-002 and 1992 Mazda RX-792P in GTP and the 1991 Mazda RX-7 GTO.

Friday’s race was won by Andrew Carbonell in the fan favorite 767B wrapped in the iconic orange and green livery. Carbonell won from pole and was followed by Wagner in the stunning RX-7 GTO.

The roles were reversed on Saturday as Wagner claimed victory, followed by Carbonell.

The event was Wagner’s first-ever historic racing experience and he was left pleasantly surprised with the GTO.

“It was even more fun than I thought it would be,” Wagner said. “Of course, the car is unique in its own way, and everything is a lot to take in initially, from the handling to all of the power and speed it has. After a few laps of getting comfortable, I could really start to imagine what it must have been like to race this car in its heyday.

Wagner was offered the privilege to drive the RX-7 in recognition of his 2024 Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin Championship.

“The RX-7 GTO just has so much to love about it, and driving it on track, you immediately start enjoying every lap more and more,” said Wagner. “I couldn’t think of a better place than Sebring to get my first laps in either, it’s such a perfect track. I’ve been driving here for many years, and whether it’s in an MX-5 Cup car, or the RX-7, it’s such a satisfying and fun track to string some laps together on.”

With the conclusion of the 2024 HSR season, the Mazda Heritage Collection now prepares for the start of the 2025 season, which is just around the corner, January 23 – 26, at Daytona International Speedway as a support race for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“The race wins are nice, but the Mazda Heritage Collection is all about celebrating Mazda’s racing history,” said Jonathan Applegate, Senior Manager, Mazda Motorsports. “Witnessing race fans get up close and personal with the machines they grew up watching, is the best prize. Twice this year we brought a MX-5 Cup champion in to drive one of the Heritage Collection cars and it’s been really cool to witness the drivers who are writing the newest chapters of the Mazda history books compete in cars that came in the pages before.”