2014 Mazda SKYACTIV-D Prototype race car revealed for the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship

Mazda has recently announced its plans to field two SKYACTIV-D race cars in the Prototype Class for the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Set to enter competition at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the cars were co-developed with SpeedSource Race Engineering who had also previously helped the company create the Mazda6 SKYACTIV-D clean diesel race car for the Grand-Am GX Series.

The cars will be run by SpeedSource but Mazda is still in discussions with other teams who are interested in the prototype class. The company also revealed that they are talking to teams about the possibility of turning the Mazda6 into a GT Daytona class race car.

Mazda did not release the performance specifications but confirmed that the car has a SKYACTIV-D Smart Diesel race engine that is 51 percent stock by parts count and 63 percent stock by weight. According to Mazda Motorsports Director John Doonan that this was the most significant step Mazda has taken towards returning to the global racing stage since their overall victory at Le Mans in 1991. He further said that they were pretty confident that their two prototype cars will challenge the best North America has to offer.