Pro Mazda announces incentives, transition plan before PM-18 debut - MotorSportsTalk

The Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires series has been undersubscribed this season, but the series and Andersen Promotions have announced incentives to help change that ahead of a transition year in 2017.

See the release from the series below:

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The Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires has long served as a vital step for today’s top drivers, counting Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, Graham Rahal, Conor Daly, Matthew Brabham, Jack Hawksworth, Sage Karam and Spencer Pigot amongst its many graduates. Approaching a transition year until the debut of the new Mazda-powered Tatuus PM-18 in 2018, Andersen Promotions – in conjunction with its partners Mazda and Cooper Tires – today announced a series of enhancements to the current program.

Next season, the Pro Mazda calendar will see a reduction in the number of events from eight to six and the number of races from 16 to 14, to reduce budgets while still providing a proper mix of circuits for driver training with one oval, one street circuit and four road course events. The PM-18 will be made available to teams as early as June 1, providing an opportunity for a summer testing program with the new chassis in preparation for 2018. Andersen Promotions will also offer teams a $5,000 discount on the PM-18 for each driver who commits to running the entire 2017 season in addition to its almost 20 percent full-season entry fee discount.

The Pro Mazda champion’s Mazda scholarship to advance to Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires in 2018 will be increased from $590,300 to $790,300 next year bringing the total event and year end prizes to over $1.1M. The Cooper Tires Pole Award will be increased to $1,500 per race. A new National Class prize package, for drivers 20 years of age and older competing in cars running in Pro Mazda specification and meeting the older Star Mazda technical requirements by SCCA FA Class competition rules, also will be introduced.

Additional enhancements include a one-day Indy Lights test for each of the top-three finishers in the championship, and a new Pro Mazda Rookie of the Year Mazda Car Award which features a new Mazda street car of choice to the winning driver.

With three venues remaining on the 2016 calendar, Andersen Promotions is offering extra financial incentives for drivers to gain valuable seat time in advance of next season.

An additional $52,500 has been allocated to the 2016 prize structure. Championship Class finishing positions of sixth through tenth will now earn an increased purse of $1,000 for each race. In the National Class, $17,500 has been added with $1,500 for a race win, $750 for second and $250 for a third-place finish.

For non-points entrants for the remainder of this season, race entry fees will be reduced by 50 percent for the Championship Class and will be free for all National Class entries. A team bonus in the form of a $500 credit off of 2017 team registration fees will be issued for each new car/driver added for one or more races in 2016 up to a total credit of $2500. Teams adding a new driver for all remaining events will also receive one free set of Cooper tires.

“All of us at Andersen Promotions, Mazda and Cooper Tires are fully committed to the Pro Mazda class and to securing the healthy grids we have seen the past few years,” said Dan Andersen, Owner and CEO of Andersen Promotions. “With the PM-18 making its competition debut in 2018, we felt the need for a fresh and strong commitment now and I have to thank our great partners in Mazda and Cooper Tires for their increased support.

“We believe the opportunity to reduce budgets with a shortened season next year combined with a summer testing program of the new car and an increased prize package and program incentives will open the door for more drivers to join the series. Our 2016 incentives are designed for drivers to have the opportunity to jump in now and compete at three great venues.”

Seven races remain on the 2016 calendar with doubleheader events on the streets of Toronto (July 16/17) and at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (July 30/31), and a tripleheader round at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca season finale (September 9-11).

“Mazda shares Dan Andersen’s enthusiasm for the Pro Mazda category, and we believe strongly in providing value to our entrants,” said John Doonan, Director of Motorsports for Mazda North American Operations. “A large increase in the champion’s scholarship amount, along with so many other enhancements – like a brand new Mazda for the Rookie of the Year – will add to the value of the entire Mazda Road to Indy ladder system. This is also good for our fans, as we strive to put a larger field of cars on the track while anticipating the new PM-18 chassis.”

(Editor’s note: This story on the Heart of Racing sports cars shootout for women is one in an occasional Motorsports Talk series focusing on women in racing during March, which is Women’s History Month.)

Heart of Racing driver and team manager Ian James says his daughter, Gabby, isn’t so interested in auto racing. But she is interested (as a New York-based journalist) in writing about the sport’s efforts and growth in gender equality

It’s a topic that also was brought up by James’ wife, Kim.

“They’re always saying, ‘Hey, you manage all these guys, and you help them, so why not a woman?’ ” Ian James told NBC Sports. “And I feel like there are a lot of women that haven’t had a fair crack at it in sports car racing.

“Our whole DNA at Heart of Racing is we give people opportunities in all types of situations where there’s been crew personnel or drivers. And I felt like we hadn’t really addressed the female driver situation. I felt like there was a void to give somebody a chance to really prove themselves.”

During the offseason, the team took a major step toward remedying that.

*Hannah Grisham at the Heart of Racing shootout (Mike Levitt/LAT)*

Heart of Racing held its first female driver shootout last November at the APEX Motor Club in Phoenix, Arizona, to select two women who will co-drive an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 in the SRO SprintX Championship.

The season will begin this weekend at Sonoma Raceway with Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt behind the wheel. The team also picked a third driver, 17-year-old Annie Rhule, for a 2023 testing program.

The Phoenix audition included 10 finalists who were selected from 130 applicants to the program, which has been fully underwritten by Heart of Racing’s sponsors.

“We didn’t want it to be someone who just comes from a socio-economic background that could afford to do it on their own course,” James said. “We can pick on pure talent. We’re committed to three years to do this and see if we can find the right person. I’m very hopeful.”

So is Grisham, a Southern California native who has been racing since she was 6 in go-karts and since has won championships in Mazda and Miata ladder series. She has several victories in the World Racing League GP2 (an amateur sports car endurance series). The last two years, Grisham has worked as a test driver for the Pirelli tire company (she lives near Pirelli’s U.S. headquarters in Rome, Georgia, and tests about 30 times a year).

Starting with the Sonoma during SprintX event weekends (which feature races Saturday and Sunday), she will split the Heart of Racing car with O’Meara-Hunt (a New Zealand native she got to know at the shootout).

“It’s huge; the biggest opportunity I’ve had in this sport,” Grisham, 23, told NBC Sports. “Now it’s up to me to perform how I know I can. But I’m super lucky to be with such an amazing team and have a good teammate. The Heart of Racing has a family vibe and energy to it that’s really amazing. It’s super exciting. It’s hard to put into words.”

Grisham is hopeful that a strong performance eventually could lead to a full-time ride with Heart of Racing. The team has full-time entries in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and won the GTD category of the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona with the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 piloted by James, Darren Turner, Roman DeAngelis and Marco Sorensen.

James said “there’s no guarantee” of placement in an IMSA entry for Grisham and O’Meara-Hunt, but “if they prove themselves, we’ll continue to help them throughout their career and our team. The GT3 program is an obvious home for that. If they get the opportunity and don’t quite make it, we’ll be looking for the next two. The next three years, we’ll cycle through drivers until we find the right one.”

Grisham described the two-day shootout as a friendly but intense environment. After a day of getting acclimated to their cars, drivers qualified on new tires the second day and then did two 25-minute stints to simulate a race.

*Hannah Grisham reviews data with Heart of Racing sports car driver Gray Newell during the team’s shootout last November (Mike Levitt/LAT).*

“Everyone was super nice,” she said. “Once everyone gets in the car, it’s a different level. A different switch gets turned on. Everyone was super nice; everyone was quick. I feel we had an adequate amount of seat time, which is definitely helpful.

“It’s always cool to meet more women in the sport because there’s not too many of us, even though there’s more and more. It’s always cool to meet really talented women, especially there were so many from all over the world.”

IMSA has celebrated female champions and race winners, notably Katherine Legge (who is running GTD full time this season with Sheena Monk for Gradient Racing). The field at Sebring and Daytona also included the Iron Dames Lamborghini (a female-dominated team).

*The Heart of Racing’s female driver shootout drew interested candidates from around the world (Mike Levitt/LAT).*

James believes “a breakout female driver will be competing with the best of them” in the next five years as gender barriers slowly recede in motorsports.

“It’s been a male-dominated sport,” James said. “It’s still a very minute number of women drivers compared to the guys. I’m sure back in the day there were physical hurdles about it that were judged. But now the cars are not very physical to drive, and it’s more about technique and mental strength and stuff like that, and there’s no reason a girl shouldn’t do just as well as a guy. What we’re just trying to achieve is that there isn’t an obvious barrier to saying ‘Hey, I can’t hire a guy or a girl.’ We just want to put girls in front of people and our own program that are legitimate choices going forward for people.”

“There’s been some really good female drivers, but a lot of them just haven’t been able to sustain it, and a lot of that comes from sponsorship. I think (with the shootout), there’s no pressure of raising money and worrying about crash damage. We’ve taken care of all that so they can really focus on the job at hand.”

Funding always has been a hurdle for Grisham, who caught the racing bug from her father, Tom, an off-road driver who raced the Baja 1000 several times.

“I don’t come from a lot of money by any means,” she said. “So since a young age, I’ve always had to find sponsorships and get people to help me, whether it was buying tires, paying for entry fees, paying for the shipment of a car to an actual race. Literally knocking on the doors of people or businesses in my town.

“So yeah, it’s definitely something I’ve always struggled with and held me back because the sport revolves so much around money. So again to get this opportunity is insane.”

*Rianna O’Meara-Hunt was one of two women selected by the Heart of Racing to drive in the SRO SprintX Championship this year (Mike Levitt/LAT).*

Grisham credits racing pioneer Lyn St. James (an Indy 500 veteran and sports car champion) as a role model who has helped propel her career. She was hooked by the sights, smells and sounds of racing but also its competitive fire.

“There’s a zone you get in, that subconscious state of mind when you’re driving. It’s like addictive almost. I love it. Also I’m just a very competitive person as I think most race car drivers are.

“For sure I want to stay with the Heart of Racing. Obviously, I’m still getting to know everyone, but it’s a super family vibe. That’s how I grew up in the sport with just my dad and I wrenching on the cars. That’s what I love about this sport is all the amazing people you meet. And I think this is one of the most promising teams in this country. For sure, I want to learn as much as I can from them and hopefully continue. I feel so lucky and grateful to be one of those chosen.”