- The No. 203 1989 Mazda 767B caught fire in the Laguna Seca paddock during the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion.
- Crews extinguished the blaze, no one was injured, and the car will skip the remaining Reunion sessions.
- The car is privately owned chassis 003, which Mazda and the owner plan to restore rather than write off.
The Mazda 767B was supposed to be a hero of Monterey Car Week. Instead, footage from the Laguna Seca paddock shows the No. 203 prototype engulfed in flames under a tent during the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion, turning a bucket-list race week into a worst-case paddock moment for rotary fans.
The car was stationary when the fire started, crews hit it quickly with extinguishers, and team Ghost Riders Squad confirmed in a statement no one was hurt. What is clear is that the privately owned No. 203 767B will not run in the remaining Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion sessions, leaving one less screaming four-rotor on the entry list and plenty of questions about the damage.
What We Know
The incident involved the No. 203 1989 Mazda 767B, correcting early speculation that the blaze hit the better-known No. 202 car. Video and trackside reports agree the prototype was parked in the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca paddock when flames erupted from the left side of the engine cover, with thick smoke pouring from that area.
This particular car is chassis 003, the third and final 767B built, and one of just three examples of Mazda’s Group C prototype. It was sold by Gooding & Company at Amelia Island in 2017 for $1,750,000 and has since been prepared for historic racing by its current owner, American businessman Tony McIntosh. Reports from the paddock identify Brendon Leitch as the driver listed to race it in the Hurley Haywood Trophy, though he had not yet turned a competitive lap before the fire.
Mazda’s motorsports arm stressed that this 767B is privately owned and not part of its official heritage collection, an important distinction for anyone wondering whether one of Mazda’s factory museum pieces had been lost. The team thanked marshals and crew for the rapid response, confirmed the car will skip the rest of the Reunion schedule, and pledged that No. 203 will be restored once more and “sing again.”
Car Identity And 787B Confusion
Social media clips initially misidentified the burning prototype as Mazda’s 787B that won the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans, then as 767B No. 202, before outlets and on-site observers confirmed the car as No. 203. The confusion was amplified because the actual Le Mans-winning 787B (chassis 787B-002) is at Laguna Seca this same week, flown in from Mazda’s collection in Japan to headline the JDM Mazda exhibit at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
Having the most historically important rotary-powered race car ever built on the grounds made early viewers fear that the fire might have claimed the 787B, prompting Mazda to clarify that the blaze involved a different, customer-owned 767B. With that fear eased, attention shifted back to No. 203’s condition. As of now, there is no official cause beyond suggestions of an oil or fuel issue combined with heat soak near the engine bay.
Team Ghost Riders Squad’s promise that No. 203 will be restored rather than written off matters because complete 767B chassis are so scarce and so closely linked to the development of the Le Mans-winning 787B. For context on how dramatic race car fires can reshape a weekend, compare this to an earlier incident where an AMG GT prototype caught fire during testing, abruptly ending its session. Laguna Seca has seen its share of drama too, including a high-profile Nissan GT-R R34 crash that led to a lawsuit.
Motor1’s Take: The fire underlines how even carefully prepared, rare prototypes stay vulnerable in busy paddocks, and No. 203’s rebuild will be watched closely by collectors, historians, and Mazda fans looking for answers on the cause and any changes to fuel, oil, heat-soak, or emergency procedures that come out of this.
Read the full article here
