On December 8, a nice warm Sunday, over 3,500 Mazda fans got together for the “Mazda Fan Festival In Okayama”, held at Okayama International Circuit, to enjoy the once-a-year-festival.

This is the second time the event has been held, continuing on from last year. Bringing together Mazda fans, racecars and racers that are active internationally, as well as Mazda personnel, including managers and alumni to enjoy events both on track and on the event stage while spending the day together was the objective, and deemed a complete success. This year, representing SpeedSource, who took the Manufacturer's title for Mazda in the GX class of the U.S.-based GRAND-AM series - was special guest and owner-driver Sylvain Tremblay, joined onstage by another special guest, Mr. Yojiro Terada (often referred to as “Mr. Le Mans”).

Among the cars performing on track was the KNIGHT SPORTS RX-8, which had just returned from the Macau GP, a Mazda 767B, a Demio and a Roadster that have added much excitement to the Super Taikyu Series, a Cosmo Sport, an R100 Rotary Coupe, a Mazda RX-3 and other similarly important Mazda racecars that had won various races, both in Japan and internationally. Also, there was a test-ride event for the latest new model of Axela, and an all-Mazda parade run. In addition, there was a variety of motorsport events being held at the same time, such as the time-attack race with only Mazda vehicles, and a 2.5-hour endurance race. There were also meetings of owners' clubs for the Cosmo Sports, Mazda CX-5 and Mazda Atenza models, for which people came from all over the country. The richly varied itinerary included an anniversary event for the Mazda Axela, commemorating its tenth year, and we think that our fans all felt satisfied as they returned home.

Tremblay, who talked about his championship victory during the opening ceremony, said (to much applause from fans), "Coming here today and being able to meet so many Japanese fans has made me very happy, and it's a real honor. This year, with the help of Mazda, Mazda USA and our team, we were able to win the Manufacturer's title for the Mazda6 SKYACTIV-D Racing machine. Next year, we plan to debut two cars from the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona, equipping them with Sky-D diesel engines which will see their performance enhanced in a full-scale P2 prototype program next year.”