Protomotive Racing ready for 2005 season

The Fallbrook-based Protomotive Racing team will begin its 2005 season in Sebring this month.

The team has a new Mazda 6 for the Speed Challenge World touring series and will race that car March 18 at Sebring. In addition to 11 Speed World Challenge races, Protomotive Racing will also have seven Formula D drifting events in 2005 in which they will use a Mazda Miata.

“We’re gearing up for this year,” said Joe Jordan, who co-owns Protomotive Racing along with his brother, Jim.

Joe and Jim Jordan both live in Fallbrook. Joe Jordan’s wife, Janice, is also on the team, as is Fallbrook’s Stormy McInerny. The driver, Scott Bradley, lives in San Mateo.

Protomotive Racing started in 1994. “We’ve been campaigning Mazdas ever since,” Joe Jordan noted.

In 2004 Bradley was 14th in the Speed World Challenge series and 16th in the Formula D series. “It’s kind of an off-year for us,” Jordan remarked.

Bradley will drive two new cars in 2005. Protomotive Racing used a Mazda Protege in the Speed World Challenge series last year, but this year Bradley will have a Mazda 6. The Protege has a two-liter engine while the Mazda 6 has a 2.3-liter engine and a sequential six-speed transmission. “It’s going to produce about 290 horsepower. It’s naturally aspirated,” Jordan said of the Mazda.

Both the old drifting car and the new drifting car are Miatas. “It’s the shortest wheelbase car in the series, so it’s pretty much an underdog, but the crowd likes it,” Jordan noted.

Jordan explained that the open top made the Miata a crowd favorite. The new Miata’s first competition will take place April 10.

Although the Protege is not expected to be raced this year, it appears in this year’s Mazda Motorsports calendar as the January 2005 car. The 2005 calendar is the fourth consecutive Mazda Motorsports calendar to feature Protomotive Racing cars. Protomotive Racing is also featured in the Modified magazine calendar, and the team’s Miata appeared in the December 2004 issue of Modified magazine.

The new Mazda 6 was built in the AWR fabrication shop in Vista, and on February 17 Protomotive Racing kicked off its season with a party which began with an open house at AWR and continued with pizza and go-kart racing at the K1 Speed indoor karting track in Carlsbad.