Back to where she made her first career start in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, Julia Ballario looks forward to her return to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with Rounds 10 and 11 this weekend. The 2.258-mile, 13-turn natural-terrain road course located in Lexington, Ohio features multiple elevation changes and both fast and technical corners.

After a successful 2013 SCCA SafeRacer National Racing Series season, culminating with a runner-up finish in the Formula Mazda race at the 50th SCCA National Championship Runoffs® at Road America, Crestwood, IL racer Brian Lift will make his professional racing debut in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires.

he Mazda Road to Indy continues to expand its outreach to the grassroots levels of the sport with today’s announcement that Andersen Promotions has formed an alliance with the Australia Formula Ford Association Inc. (FFA) with immediate effect which will see the representative body for Formula Ford racing in that country become an Official Partner of the ladder series through 2016. The first level of the highly acclaimed Mazda Road to Indy – the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda – will be promoted as an endorsed progression path for Australian drivers pursuing international careers in motorsports.

Don’t mess with Texas. Cape Motorsport with Wayne Taylor Racing left MD Anderson Cancer Center Speedway with a victory and a podium during last weekend’s Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires Allied Building Products Pro Mazda Grand Prix of Houston Presented by Marlin CNG Services. Scott Hargrove picked up his third victory of the season, while Neil Alberico scored another podium finish.

Rounds eight and nine of the 2014 Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires brought Michael Johnson back to Houston, Texas and the same street course he raced on the previous year when running in the USF2000 Championship. The notoriously bumpy street layout around Houston's NRG Stadium greeted Johnson and his fellow JDC MotorSports drivers, Ryan Booth and Clark Toppe, in typical Texas style. It was very hot.