Goodyear Racing Equipped Open Wheel Racer Set to Debut
Goodyear Racing signs on to be official tire of the Mazda powered Formula Car Challenge and the new 2010 FormulaSPEED2.0 December 10th, 2009
Orlando, Florida

This weekend at the Performance Racing Industry trade show World Speed Inc. announced that they will introduce a new open wheel racecar that will compete in their nationwide Formula Car Challenge series.

The series is entering its sixth consecutive season, and has always featured Mazda powered formula cars with Goodyear Racing tires. "The new car is being designed around the Goodyear Racing Formula Eagle G19 which is a great tire that we have had a lot of experience with," stated World Speed's Operations Manager Mark Milazzo. "It also has two additional benefits; it is a reasonably priced tire that will last, and it is made right here in the United States." Goodyear Racing has agreed to support the FormulaSPEED2.0 and the Formula Car Challenge Series for five years with two consecutive five year options.

Bob Shaffer, the sales account manager for Goodyear sports car racing division had this to add, "Goodyear Racing is very happy to be involved with World Speed and its various racing enterprises. We are very optimistic about the future of the new FormulaSPEED2.0 car. We see a lot of growth potential, as evidenced by our five-year agreement. Goodyear has a long history with Mazda-powered concepts and we are pleased to see that history continue."

The new FormulaSPEED2.0 (FS2.0) was designed with three major goals in mind. The first goal is to make the car easy to work on for teams and privateers. "We know that there is a large contingent of racers who enjoy doing their own work, and we intend to make it as enjoyable as possible for them," stated World Speed's President Telo Stewart. "The racecars will be sold with complete documentation on how to service and prepare them." This is an industry first for American racecar manufacturers.

The second goal was to make the running costs reasonable. "We felt it was very important to keep costs associated with operating the car down. All the racers we know would rather spend money on track-time than parts," added Stewart.

The third goal was to to work with vendors based in the United States as much as possible. "Setting the goal of keeping our vendors close was based on the issues we have seen in the past with international shipping, the associated costs and paperwork, and even more importantly the fluctuation in different currencies. Having most of our parts made here makes it easier to meet and work with vendors, and to keep prices from wild fluctuations," stated Mark Milazzo.

The FormulaSPEED2.0 features modern racecar technologies without breaking the bank, or making the car difficult to work on. The aero kit is F3 inspired, with multiple elements front and rear. The car features a spec ECU that manages the dry-sump MZR 2.0L DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder engine with variable valve timing. A few of the other notable features include: A spec data acquisition system with steering wheel display, 6 speed sequential transaxle, and inboard rocker suspension with double adjustable dampers.

"We're pleased that World Speed has chosen the Mazda MZR to power their new FormulaSPEED 2.0 racecar. The Mazda MZR is proving itself to be the engine of choice for a wide variety of applications where a powerful, efficient, and compact four-cylinder engine is needed. World Speed has extensive experience with our engines and we expect the new car to be a success," noted Steve Sanders, MAZDASPEED Motorsports Manager.

"We were concerned with pricing, but that didn't mean we wanted to have a cheap car," added Milazzo. "We worked with icons of the racing industry on where costs could be contained, and where high end components were mandatory. I am really proud at how hard our partners worked, and thought, to help us meet all of our objectives." The major partners in the design and development of the new car have been Hasselgren Engineering, and Fast Forward Components. Other notable companies that have featured components on the FormulaSPEED2.0 are MAZDASPEED, Aerocraft, Ian Gordon Racing, AiM Sports, Penske Shocks, Hewland, and Cosworth.

Pricing for the car will be released soon, but is expected to be in the range of what you might pay for a nice SUV, or home improvement project. Current schedule for delivery is mid-2010. The first points paying race for the new car will be opening for the Indy Racing League at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma California on August 20-22.

"Having the first race for the FormulaSPEED2.0 be at a high-level event like the IndyCar race at Infineon is great for the new car and for the Formula Car Challenge series," stated Series Official Ben Hettema.

The Formula Car Challenge presented by Goodyear is a multiple region NASA sanctioned series with an annual national championship. The series features a multi-class format - Standard Formula Mazda (SFM), Pro Formula Mazda (PFM), and the FormulaSPEED2.0 (FS2.0). All classes are powered by Mazda, and equipped with Goodyear Racing tires. The 2010 Formula Car Challenge regions, and FormulaSPEED2.0 dealer network will be announced in an upcoming press release. For information on starting a region, or becoming a dealer contact Mark Milazzo at: racing@FormulaSPEED.us

Official press release from PRI:
http://formulaspeed.us/news/12.10.09...ouncement.html