Roddison builds endurance-spec MX-5 and plans Club Enduro entry

Max5 champion Paul Roddison raced a brand new endurance-spec

Mk4 Mazda MX-5 at Anglesey’s 12-hour Race of Remembrance last weekend.

Roddison is fresh from claiming his latest Max5 championship, winning 14 races out of 16 in 2019, and has built the endurancespec car to save work done previously in adapting his sprint MX-5 for the event.

“In previous years we’ve kept adapting the car to turn it into an endurance car and back into a sprint car; to save that this year we’ve built an endurance car,” Roddison said.

He built the car in the space of just “a manic two weeks” and the revisions include a larger fuel tank and illuminating numbers.

Race of Remembrance was the car’s first time out, without testing, and it had no teething problems other than small suspension tweaks for handling.

“It was only very minor,” Roddison explained. “We’ve built many of these before so we’ve got a good base to start with.” He also intends to race the MX-5 in Club Enduro.

As with 12 months ago, Roddison had British Touring Car drivers Dan Welch and Rob Austin driving alongside him in the Race of Remembrance. “They’ve been looking forward to it all season, it’s a good event, it’s a lads’ weekend away,” Roddison added.

The Roddison Motorsport team finished 10th overall and second in class, despite losing around three laps early on after putting on dry-weather tyres for the opening stint, which proved the wrong decision as the heavens opening when in the assembly area.

Having fought back into class victory contention the MX-5 then ran out of fuel on track with around two-and-a-half hours to go.