......  at Snetterton

The Mazda RX-8 driven by Mark Ticehurst and Natasha Firman took it's fifth win of the season at this weekend's round of the Production S1 Series held at Natasha's home circuit of Snetterton.

The two hour race was the seventh in the Production S1 Endurance Race Series which has seen the Mazda RX-8 take five class wins, one of which was also an overall race win, and two class seconds, success that has underlined the Mazda RX-8's reliability and handling.

Mark Ticehurst put the car in class pole during morning qualifying on Saturday and took the first hour stint to hand over to Natasha with a healthy lead, a lead Natasha kept to the chequered flag taking the class win and fifth overall.

The Mazda RX-8 is virtually a production car having only had the suspension changed to account for the slick tyres and safety equipment fitted to conform to RACMSA race rules, the engine and gearbox are standard and the same as found on the road-going version.

"This was another great result for the team," commented Mark Ticehurst.  "The Mazda RX-8 is proving to be a very successful race car with very few modifications needed, this is very much due to the car being so good in standard trim in terms of dynamic handling and the rotary engine that delivers power in such a smooth linear fashion that makes it easy to drive fast on the circuit."

The next race for the Mazda team is at Oulton Park in Cheshire on Saturday 6th August.