The Thailand Super Series was held on August 17th and 18th at the Bira Circuit in the resort city of Pattaya, about 150 km from the Thai capital Bangkok. In the race, a pair of Mazda2 entries made their racing debut.

Entered through the newly formed "Mazda Innovation Team", the two Mazda2 cars were driven by Michael Freeman and Pete Tongchua. Freeman drove the #55 four-door variant of the sedan, which is produced in Thailand, while Tongchua, a famous actor in the country, piloted the #17 five-door hatchback. In official qualifying, Freeman placed the #55 machine seventh out of 29 vehicles, while Tongchua placed the #17 machine ninth, in what was, overall, a decent start for the team.

The series' third round was held on the 17th (Saturday), and was a turbulent and close race where yellow flags flew for long periods of time. In the middle of this, the two cars had contrasting results. The #55 of Freeman collided with another vehicle and went off track. Though he was able to return to the action, he crossed the finish line in 12th place. In contrast, Tongchua in the #17 car was able to avoid the chaos and finish fourth in the machine's debut race. After the race ended, rival teams took notice of the high potential that the Mazda2 had shown, and competitors visited the Mazda Innovation Team pit, where they could be seen checking out the details of the two cars.

The fourth round, held on the 18th (Sunday), was a much cleaner race. However, Freeman's #55 car had engine trouble during the formation lap and had to return to the pit. He finished the race a lap down from the other racers. The #17 car with Tongchua at the wheel burned through the laps in top form, and finished once again in fourth place.

Team representative Freeman had this to say after the race, “It was the highest honor for me to be able to participate with the #55 car, sporting Mazda motorsports' symbolic number painted on the side of my car. Although I was held back by repeated bad luck, the great performance shown by the Mazda2 in its debut race was the real talking point. There are still more improvements we can make to the rear suspension, and I'm sure we can increase our speed even more in time for the next race.”