MAZDA RX-8 CUP
MAZDA RX-8 CUP
The Mazda RX-8 sports car has powered Stiaan Kriel to motorsport success in three countries.
Racing driver Stiaan Kriel has a problem.
Race day is looming and he doesn’t have a car – a racing car, that is. His newest machine is on the way from Western Australia but it won’t arrive in Melbourne in time for the first green light of the competition season.
In a situation as bad as a pub with no beer, the Dealer Principal of Sydney’s Alexandria Mazda needs to dig deep for a solution, and fast.
So, what does he do? He taps into the wheeling and dealing skills he honed as a kid growing up in South Africa.
“I used to sell chocolates to kids at school,” he says with a laugh, recalling his earliest days in commerce. “It was a great way to make money to fund my little motorbike trading business, which I ran on the side. Every Thursday the newspaper would arrive and I’d circle in pen the best stuff I could find and then jump on a train and buy it.”
Trading two-stroke dirt bikes gave rise to weekend motocross racing but these eventually gave way to telco sales when the mobile phone craze arrived.
“They were so cheap they were like penny stocks,” he says.
His entrepreneurial drive opened the door to his first car, a Morris Minor, and then his earliest taste of four-wheeled motorsport.
“My first competition car was a mark-one VW Golf I raced on gravel ovals. It was a little front-wheel drive car with 130 kW but it weighed only 680 kilos. It was the cheapest form of racing.”
A move to Super Modifieds led to circuit racing and then more professional classes.
“I didn’t have the engine power of the other cars but corner speed was my strength and I really shone when it rained. It taught me a lot.”
Back on the road, the Morris was replaced by an Opel half-tonne ute which then led to the sports car at the centre of this story.
“I was a year out of school, studying marine engineering and working part-time at a construction firm and I came across this cool car at an auction. It was a black-on-black Mazda RX-8.”
It wasn’t long before he was competing in gymkhanas, thanks to his many fast miles on South Africa’s speedways.
In the meantime, Stiaan’s professional ambitions were quickly driving him through South Africa’s motor trade. Beginning in new-car retail sales, he landed ever-more senior roles on the way to becoming the country’s youngest dealer principal.
His rise contributed to overseas career opportunities. In early 2023 New Zealand called, bringing with it new racing circuits and more fun.
“When I arrived, I bought another black RX-8 and I raced it for the season. I also wanted to build my own race car so I bought a Shinka Special Edition RX-8. Its foam-filled subframes give it a stiffer chassis, which is ideal for racetrack handling,” he says.
An engineer, Stiaan built his newest RX-8 race car during 2023 but another, even bigger career opportunity – this time in Australia – came knocking late last year.
“I got to race the new car for the first time at Taupo in November before leaving.”
Both race cars sold, Stiaan made the trip across the ditch to begin work as dealer principal at one of Sydney’s largest Mazda dealerships, Alexandria Mazda.
His two RX-8 racers might have stayed in NZ but the racing bug stayed with him, so he went searching for a fix.
Enter Australia’s RX-8 Cup.
This fast-growing, one-make racing series began in mid-2017 thanks to long-standing Mazda tuner and racer, Ric Shaw. He conceived the category as a way to create a cost-effective production car-based racing series in Australia.
The category uses the series 1 Mazda RX-8 as the base car under 3E Production Car racing specifications. Importantly, various restrictions minimise build and maintenance costs.
“So much of the car is left standard,” says Stiaan. “The rotary engine’s intake and exhaust manifolds are standard, the engine management system is standard and engine porting is not allowed. It’s all about keeping the cars as close to factory-specification as possible.
“You can buy any replacement parts at a Mazda dealership.”
The RX-8 Cup’s official website says the cost to build a competitive RX-8 racing car for the series can be as low as $10,000 - $14,000 if you do the necessary preparation work yourself.
The RX-8 Cup’s affordability has made it accessible to many keen drivers, resulting in consistently high competitor numbers. It’s even attracted racing legends such as Australian Touring Car Champion and Bathurst 1000 race winner, John Bowe.
What are the cars like to drive?
“The RX-8’s sports car abilities really show in this racing category,” says Stiaan. “The cars are very stable and because they don’t have excessive power levels you’re less likely to spin exiting a corner. Top speeds are around 218 km/h at Phillip Island and close to 230 km/h at Bathurst’s Mount Panorama, but you need to rely on accuracy and racecraft to get to the front.”
They’re exactly what Stiaan used during the opening round of this year’s Mazda RX-8 Cup.
Having bought another RX-8 Cup racer, this time from Perth, his new car would still be in transit across the country when the flag fell at Round 1 of the 2025 series at Phillip Island, a circuit he’d never driven.
Some careful and clever negotiating, however, saw him secure the use of the number 83 Maisie Place Motorsport entry under a temporary lease arrangement. From no wheels to behind the wheel, his wheeling and dealing skills had come to the rescue.
And how did he fare?
“I took pole position and won all four races,” he says with a smile. “I even beat the lap record during my first time on the circuit, and beat it again to secure pole.”