Jim Daniels, of Germantown, Tenn., was out for a Saturday afternoon drive as he drove flag-to-flag to capture his third SCCA Pro Racing SIRIUS Satellite Radio Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by Hankook victory of the season. Daniels’ Round Five victory was part of the Portland Grand Prix at Portland International Raceway. Local driver Brad McAllister, of Portland, Ore., finished second, 17.911-seconds behind Daniels

Jim Daniels captures his third MX-5 Cup win of 2006 at Portland International Raceway.

Jim Daniels, of Germantown, Tenn., held off Team MER teammate Jason Saini, of Forth Worth, Texas, by 0.174-second to win Round Four of the SCCA Pro Racing SIRIUS Satellite Radio Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by Hankook Saturday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Daniels moved into the championship lead by a thin margin of one point. Team MER looks to have momentum heading into the second half of the season.

Jim Daniels (front) leads teammate Jason Saini en route to his second win of the season at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

After missing practice for his children’s graduations and then losing a transmission during qualifying, a clean race just would not have fit the type of weekend Jim Daniels, of Germantown, Tenn., had. So, it seemed right that the driver had to overcome more transmission problems, along with several lead changes, to take the checkered flag in Memorial Day”s SCCA Pro Racing SIRIUS Satellite Radio Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by Hankook race, part of the Rolex GT Series Challenge at Lime Rock Park. Todd Buras, of Melbourne, Fla., finished second, 0.161-sec. behind, followed by Erik Stearns, of Van Buren, Ohio…  read complete story at mx-5cup.com

Jim Daniels (front) barely leads Todd Buras during Monday’s MX-5 Cup race at Lime Rock Park.

Cresson, TX, Team MER Shops.    Recognized as an accomplished driver in a verity of cars, Jim Daniels has accepted an offer to assist SCCA Enterprises Inc. with a “Myth Busting” project.  The mission of this project is to see if a talented driver can be competitive in a mediocre car.  Thus busting the “myth” that only those who know the secrets, buy the secrets or have been racing in the SRF class for many years have a chance to be competitive.

“He wanted to do it anyway and as a non-regular to the class I am able to try something interesting. We are going to build him a motor that is at the very bottom of the dyno window and publicize this fact.  Jim’s job is then to go out and do as well as he can with a “worst case” motor.”  – Erik Skirmants, SCCA Enterprises Inc..

Team MER will field chassis #150 on loan from John Weisberg at Berg Racing.  Jim will be racing Nationals at Memphis, Topeka and Roebling Road.  Visit www.jimdaniels.com, www.s3mag.com or the soon to be launched Team MER website, www.motorsportenterprises.com, for more news regarding the “Myth Busting” SRF project.

Cresson, TX, Team MER Shops. The late “silly” season driver seat swapping has settled at Team MER. The final driver lineup for the 2006 MX5 Cup presented by Hankook has Jim Daniels, Jason Saini, Eric Stearns, Deborah Loth, Todd Lamb, Ben Hohn and John Kuitwaard completing the season roster for Team MER. It was also announced that a 8th car is available although plans to rent or sell it have not been determined. Team MER will be launching their new website in the coming weeks. Watch for more exciting news regarding sponsors and promotional events at www.motorsportenterprises.com.

Germantown TN., Jim Daniels will join drivers Charles Espenlaub, Scott Bradley, Ken Dobson, Johnny Kanavas, Robert Davis, Tim Buck, Jeremy Barnes, Scott Kaluza, Andy Bornhop (of Road & Track Magazine), and Mark Gilles (of Automobile Magazine) for a factory-backed, 2-car assault on the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) 25 Hours of Thunderhill Endurance Race Presented by the U.S. Air Force, Dec. 2-4 2005.

With Mazda’s announcement of the 2006 Mazdaspeed MX-5 Cup Presented by Hankook Tires, which will utilize the brand new and redesigned 2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata, the team plans to use The 25 as development ground for the brand new race car(s). Mazdaspeed Motorsports will field a pair of brand new MX-5 Miatas for the event. The 25, held at Thunderhill Raceway Park, in Northern California, brings on all types of conditions, close competition and, of course, an extreme test of endurance…

This will be the eighth year NASA has organized this unique race and believes it will be one of the best years ever. Last year’s starting grid saw over 60 cars take the green flag! This prestigious west coast event brings teams from all over the world to compete.  The green flag is set to fly at 12:00 pm on Saturday, December 3 at Thunderhill Raceway Park.

BRASELTON, Ga., Road Atlanta.  Jim ran a great race finishing 4th out of 48 cars in the last ARRC event to be held.  With SM gaining National status for 2006 competitors flocked to Road Atlanta to participate in arguable the most prestigious SM event to date.    In the 6 years the event has been held Jim is the ONLY TWO TIME WINNER and has never finished out of the top 5 while being the all time ARRC lap leader.  A frustrating week for Jim was over shadowed by the camaraderie and festivities of the week.  Jim would fight a straight line speed issue that would later be reviled as a faulty front brake caliper creating drag on the car.

The #47 PSM has been sold, stay tuned for news of our 2006 Club and Pro season!!

MONTEREY, Calif. (May 2, 2005) – Jim Daniels, of Germantown, Tenn. and Justin Hall, of Davis, Calif., split the season-opening SCCA Pro Racing Mazdaspeed Miata Cup Presented by Hankook doubleheader this weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, part of the U.S. Sports Car Invitational weekend.
… Sunday again provided close, clean racing action, with Daniels taking the win in his BSI Racing Mazda Miata 1.8 after a race-long battle with Hall. After a DNF on Saturday, Daniels started from the pole, but it was McCarthy that held the point for much of the beginning of the race in his FMG/880 Trailer/Rebello Racing Engines entry until a quick spin in turn nine relegated him to the bottom half of the top 10.

Daniels was able to spoil Hall’s attempt to sweep the doubleheader by beating him to the checkered flag by just 0.302sec.

2nd ARRC Victory!

Jim Daniels becomes the first person in Spec Miata class history to repeat as National champion. In a controversial race, Jim finishing second on track but would later be declared the winner when the first place car Driven By Professional Driver, Bob Stretch, would be deemed out of compliance and disqualified. Jim, being the first car to pass technical inspections, earned the right to be champion. In doing so, Jim becomes the only driver to repeat as National champion in the Spec Miata class.

Jim was quoted saying; “Based on the qualifying results and drawing on my experience in this class, I knew the real race would be for second on track”. “As it turned out, I was right”. “The battle for second on was the customary race the fans have come to enjoy”. “I wish we could have given them the proper show with the first place car also being the legal one”.

September 26, 2004 – Jim Daniels, of Germantown, Tenn., took the checkered flag in first place Sunday, taking the Showroom Stock C class win at the 2004 SCCA National Championship Runoffs® Presented by Kohler at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Later, the win would be taken away with a one position penalty.

Video of Race and Incident: Runoffs 04 SSC Contact (MPEG)  Runoff 2004 SSC Full Race (WMV)

LEXINGTON, Ohio (Sept. 26, 2004) – Jim Daniels, of Germantown, Tenn., took the checkered flag in first place Sunday, taking the Showroom Stock C class win at the 2004 SCCA National Championship Runoffs® Presented by Kohler at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Later, the win would be taken away with a one position penalty.

Driving the No. 76 jimdaniels.com/Mazda/Hoosier 04 Mazda 3, Daniels topped the 39-car field to capture his first National Championship. Starting fourth, Daniels got a good jump at the green flag to move into third. After running in tight formation for several laps, Daniels passed Schroer to move into second position. Conserving his tires, he began to close on the leader in the late stages of the race. On lap 18, the lead duo went side-by-side into the Keyhole turn. Making contact, leader Ryan Ciechanski spun off-course, while Daniels took the lead. At the checkered flag, Daniels had captured the win by 4.757 seconds and an average speed of 73.748 mph.

“Ryan [Ciechanski] was coming back to me,” said Daniels. “I didn’t have to push my car hard. He was slowing. He had a big push at turn one and I was able to get alongside going into the keyhole turn. He started inching over on me and we touched, I got by.”

After passing the post race technical inspections, SCCA officials would penalize Daniels one position for the side-to-side contact that occurred with the #56 car. Final results list Daniels as the second place finisher.
Daniels was quoted saying “I do not agree with the decision as impeding a pass is equally an illegal move” also “maybe I’m wrong, watch the race and decide for yourself”, “I’ll be back next year to try it again”.

Now in its 41st year, the SCCA National Championship Runoffs annually crown the best amateur road racers in North America Champions. More than 700 competitors have gathered this year to battle for 24 class titles this year, with eight races being run each day from Friday through Sunday.

Celebrating its 60th Anniversary, Sports Car Club of America is a 60,000 member motorsports organization that sanctions and promotes grassroots and professional motorsports events of a variety of disciplines, including road racing, autocrossing, road rally and performance rally.