The No.203 Mazda 767B caught fire yesterday during Monterey Car Week. The frightening incident took place at the paddocks at Laguna Seca Raceway. Our hearts skipped a beat when we first glimpsed footage of the orange and green Charge livery engulfed in flames. Social media posts initially misreported the car as the 787B. That wasn’t the case, fortunately, though the damage sustained to the 767B is still a loss for the motorsports community.
There are several Mazda race cars with the Charge livery, so it’s easy to get them confused. The legendary 1991 Le Mans winning car is scheduled to make an appearance in Monterey this week so the incorrect posts could have been possible, and would have been an absolute tragedy. Other reports initially stated this was the 767B that Mazda restored in 2016, but that’s not the case either. That was chassis 767B-002 and wears racing number 202.
The car that caught fire is chassis 767B-003, wearing the racing number 203. It’s one of the few modern Mazda prototype racers that is privately owned. There were only three examples built, and each one started life as a Mazda 767, built to compete in the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Japan Sports Prototype Championship.
The 767 was the first Mazda prototype designed specifically to house the 4-rotor R26B, and among the first to wear the iconic orange and green Charge livery. Chassis 003 served as a reserve car for 1988’s running of Le Mans, and didn’t take to Circuit de la Sarthe until 1989, where it finished 12th overall and 3rd in the GTP class with Yojiro Terada, Marc Duez, and Volker Weidler behind the wheel.
In 1990, Mazda campaigned chassis 003 at Le Mans in upgraded 767B form. By then, the two primary cars had been replaced with a pair of new 787 racers, but both of those were taken out by mechanical issues. That left 767B-003, driven by Yojiro Terada, Takashi Yorino, and Yoshimi Katayama as the sole Mazda entry. It finished 20th overall and first in the GTP class.
It was then retired and sold to a Japanese privateer team, making it one of the few Mazda prototypes to have been owned by anyone other than Mazda. In subsequent years it exchanged hands a few more times, spending time in South Africa and Germany, before being auctioned at Amelia Island in 2017, where it sold for $1.75 million.
Though the blaze looked severe, eyewitnesses say that the flames were subdued fairly quickly. It’s not clear how much damage it suffered, but fortunately no one was injured. The owners of the car, Ghost Rider Racing, have issued a statement:
During yesterday’s Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion event, Mazda 767B #203 was involved in a paddock fire. Most importantly, no one was injured — for that, we are deeply grateful.
The car is special to every member of our team, and to history. It will not complete the remainder of the Reunion event, but its story is not over. #203 will be restored once more, and sing again.
It sounds like the owners are committed to bringing 787B-003 back. With any luck it will escape the fate that befell the Mazda Furai or the 1979 Ford Probe Ghia Concept from last year. Hopefully w
