Miatas in Motorsports: The Models That Made History
Built as a lightweight, affordable sports car, the Miata quickly became a motorsports giant. This guide highlights the most important victories by era and discipline, plus “where are they now” notes on the exact cars that carried Miata’s racing legend forward.
Lightweight, simple, and cheap to run, the MX-5 was built for participation. That everyman brief turned into a trophy machine across club racing, pro spec series, autocross, and long-distance endurance. Below are the most consequential wins, organized by discipline and era, with the exact cars and “where are they now” notes so you can trace the metal.
The Spec Miata Gold Standard (SCCA Runoffs)
Spec Miata National Championship, Road America.
Ethan Goulart in car #72, a 1999 NB-generation Spec Miata. Goulart parlayed the title into a 2025 pro move and grabbed an MX-5 Cup win at Mid-Ohio that June. The Runoffs Spec Miata field is routinely the deepest, most subscribed class in U.S. amateur road racing, so a crown here stamps both the driver and the chassis spec as the benchmark. The car itself remains right at home in the class with nothing more than routine freshening.
NASA’s Spec Miata National Champ
NASA Championships, Utah Motorsports Campus (Outer Course).
Daniel Williams, car #38, Spec Miata. As with most front-running SM builds, Williams’ car can keep headlining regional races as-is or pivot to endurance formats with minor tweaks. NASA’s national title is the other half of the U.S. “amateur majors,” and together with SCCA it underscores just how massive the Miata’s single-marque ecosystem really is.
Pro Spec: Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup
Jared Thomas, No. 96 ND2, took the 2022 and 2023 championships and was still winning in 2025, including Daytona Race 2. The same JTR Motorsports Engineering ND2 has stayed relevant because the spec is tightly controlled, so yesterday’s title winners can remain front-running hardware with updates and care. Cup cars originally came from Long Road Racing, with builds and support shifting to Flis Performance starting in 2019, which kept a clean parts and support pipeline for the fleet.
Kenton Koch proves the ladder works (NC Cup).
Kenton Koch, 2014 MX-5 Cup champion in the NC-generation car. He immediately climbed the “Road to 24,” dominated Prototype Lites in 2015 with 11 wins in 14 races, and later took a Rolex 24 class victory. That progression is the template: the Cup platform develops drivers and teams, and the winning cars either stay in the paddock with new owners or step down into club racing without becoming obsolete.
Endurance Pedigree: 25 Hours of Thunderhill
2011: E2 Class Win — 949 Racing “Crusher” (NB).
949 Racing’s orange NB Miata nicknamed “Crusher” won E2 at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill and finished inside the overall top-10. After the headline result, the exact car resurfaced for sale and has seen duty in testing and rentals. That is a typical second life for proven endurance Miatas: they just keep earning, year after year.
GT4 and the Nürburgring
2012: British GT — Jota Sport MX-5 GT (NC).
A factory-backed NC-based MX-5 GT run by Jota Sport scored podiums at Snetterton and Brands Hatch and showed that an MX-5 shell can carry proper GT aero and power. The program was positioned as something customers could buy into, not just a one-off science project.
2014: Nürburgring 24 Hours — works-backed MX-5 (NC, V3 class).
Car and result: Jota’s MX-5 contested the N24 in V3. The 2014 entry retired in the main race, but the same configuration had taken a V3 class win in the official Qualifying Race earlier that spring. More than anything, the program served development and storytelling: an MX-5 engineered to survive the Green Hell for hours on end.
Autocross National Champions (SCCA Solo)
2019: STR and C Street belong to MX-5s.
Brian Karwan took STR in an MX-5 and Mark Scroggs won C Street in an MX-5 at the 2019 Solo Nationals. Builds like these often keep touring the following seasons because the platform’s balance and gearing work with, not against, the rules.
2011: E Stock title.
Bartek Borowski won E Stock in a Miata. Back then, ES was the stock-class home for Miatas before the category migrations that reshuffled Street and Stock. Winning cars commonly stayed intact and evolved with the rulebooks.
Touring-Class Road Racing (ND’s dominance window)
T4 snapshot, 2021–2023.
At the 2021 Runoffs on the Indianapolis road course, John Heinricy won T4 in a Toyota 86, but the podium and field were loaded with MX-5s, including Michael Borden’s P2. The pattern has repeated across recent seasons: the ND’s power-to-weight and tire allowances keep it a title threat on most tracks, and its sheer numbers in T4 tell the story.
What these wins say about each generation
NA/NB (1990–2005): They’re cheap to campaign, durable, and still winning. The Thunderhill “Crusher” story is the archetype: build once, maintain well, and the car keeps paying back as a rental, coaching tool, or budget enduro entry.
NC (2006–2015): The Cup-spec NC created a credible pro ladder. Koch’s trajectory shows how a well-run NC can be a springboard to prototypes. At the sharp end, Jota’s GT program proved an MX-5 can wear full aero, make real power, and stand on a British GT podium.
ND/ND2 (2016–present): The ND2 Cup car is the modern spec baseline. Stable rules and strong series support mean a title-winning chassis can stay competitive for years. Jared Thomas’s No. 96 is the living case study.
Where champion Cup cars go
Most ex-MX-5 Cup cars never get retired in the romantic sense. They stay in the paddock with new owners, slide into club racing, or turn into incredibly sorted track toys. Thanks to consistent rules and documented build sheets, a lot of ND Cup cars change hands as turnkey racers, complete with their series VIN tags and provenance baked in.
