Let’s Set a World Record

Whether you knew it or not, NASA could have established a world record for the number of Spec Miatas on track at the 2018 NASA Championships Presented by Toyo Tires at Circuit of The Americas. We had 85 cars entered in that event, but we limited the Toyo Tires Classic field to 60 cars to improve the experience of those that made the finale, and ran the other 25 in the Spec Miata Deux race.

We expected a lot of entries for COTA. For starters, it was at the Circuit of The Americas, the same track where F1 drivers Max Verstappen, Kimi Raikonen and Lewis Hamilton took the podium the month following the NASA Championships. Second, and probably more prominent was the prize $80,000 purse that Toyo Tires put up for the Toyo Tires Classic. That amount of money was the largest purse ever offered in an amateur road race, and it attracted a lot of drivers. That got me thinking about a Guinness World Record.

I think we can top it for 2021, and I’m going to put an idea out into the NASA universe in the hope of making it reality. The idea is simple: Let’s put 100 NASA Spec Miatas on Daytona International Speedway for the 2021 NASA Championships Presented by Toyo Tires, and set a Guinness world record.

As of this writing, we have 49 Spec Miata entries for the 2021 NASA Championships, and I’m certain there are at least 51 more drivers out there who want to attend the event, and can help set a world record. To be honest, there are probably 51 drivers east of the Mississippi that haven’t registered yet, and that doesn’t even count the maniacs from west of the Mississippi who’d travel to Daytona to be part of a world record event.

If you’re a NASA driver who races a Spec Miata, I’m asking you to help us make this happen. I’ve got preliminary approval from NASA management to call the folks from Guinness World Records and have them come out and verify the count to put the NASA Championships in the Guinness World Records. It’s no longer the Guinness “book” of world records, but the process for setting a world record is largely the same.

Of course, it costs a little bit of money to get the Guinness people out to your event, which is why I won’t be able to call them till we get to at least 85 entries. But I don’t want to call them for 85 entries. I want us to hit 100 or more. We can fit all of them on track at one time and, let’s be honest, triple digits is a far more convincing — and lasting — record than double digits, even if it’s 99.

As long as we’re being honest, there is no existing record for the greatest number of Spec Miatas on track. The closest record to it belongs to the LeMons series for the most participants in a car race, which took place in September 2014 at Thunderhill Raceway. That race had 216 cars, which could be tough to break with only Spec Miatas, but 100 is entirely doable, and it’ll be a bonafide world record.

We have nearly all the ingredients in place to establish this record. We have a bucket-list track scheduled for NASA’s premier event and NASA’s most popular racing class. What remains to be seen is whether we have the will and determination to get it in the record book. That said, I promise to hold up my end of the deal if NASA’s Spec Miata drivers will hold up their end.

And when all is said and done, we will have made history. Let’s do it.