There are strong Mazda vibes in this week’s GT Sport Daily races

Cork is an often-under-used material made from bark tissue usually associated with securing wine within a bottle. But did you also know that it’s buoyant, Portugal harvests half of the world’s output and it’s used in the production of badminton shuttlecocks?

You see, you came to Traxion for racing video game news, and you’ve ended up with a geography lesson. We’ll cover onion-skin erosion another time…

Anyway, the point is Japanese car creators Mazda started out in 1920 as a cork manufacturer. It then took a rather complicated diversification route into vehicles, and as a nod to its heritage the very latest Mazda MX-30 features cork within its interior. Oh, and you can drive some of Mazda’s cars in this week’s GT Sport Daily Races.

Aha, there’s the rather tenuous link. We’ve made it! Now, let’s see what we have instore.

The Mazda Roadster Touring Car (or ‘MX-5’ to those in Europe, and ‘Miata’ to those in the USA) is one of my favourite cars in GT Sport. It stems from Gran Turismo 5 and is perfect for closely matched online tournaments. In the N200 class, it’s quick enough, easy to control and has pop-up headlights. Here, you race around Laguna Seca, which isn’t known for an abundance of overtaking opportunities or large run-off areas. You’ll need to be at the top of your game across all four laps in order to finish on the rostrum.

The current host of the Brazilian Formula 1 Grand Prix, GT Sport’s version of the venue is one of the most accurate in video games. You can recreate iconic moments such as Senna’s victory, “Is that Glock?!” and Ocon vs. Verstappen. Only, not in single-seaters, but any Gr.3 car of your choice and across a scant five laps. With no tyre wear or fuel consumption, it’s ‘maximum attack’ from the word go. We’ll take the manic-sounding rotary-powered Mazda RX-VISION GT3 Concept for this one, please.

Race C for this week is, as if often the case, the one where you need to get your strategy head into gear. Not only is racing 19 other cars around the slip-streaming Mecca this is Monza in Gr.4 cars a challenge enough already, tyre wear and fuel usage will be a factor. The tyres in use are the Racing Hards, however, so I wonder if a zero-stop approach is possible? There’s only one way to find out, enter this week’s online race and for me, I’ll be using the Mazda Atenza.

You can view the full details below and we’ll be back next week with the latest ranked Daily Races. For now, let us know on social media if you’ve managed to snag a victory during the latest Sport Mode events.

Race A 

Car: Mazda Roadster Touring Car
Track: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Laps: Four
No. Of Cars: 12 
Duration: 15 Mins 
Tyres: Sports Medium
Fuel Consumption: None 
Tyre Wear: None 
Start Type: Grid Start

Race B 

Car: GR.3, any 
Track: Autódromo de Interlagos
Laps: Five
No. Of Cars: 16 
Duration: 15 Mins 
Tyres: Racing Medium
Fuel Consumption: None 
Tyre Wear: None 
Start Type: Rolling Start

Race C 

Car: GR.4, any
Track: Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Laps: 10
No. Of Cars: 20 
Duration: 25 Mins 
Tyres: Racing Hard
Fuel Consumption: 2x 
Tyre Wear: 6x 
Start Type: Rolling Start