Story by Alan Cesar • Photography as Credited
Geoff Koteles is living out a legacy. His father, George Koteles, had been involved in the SCCA since the 1950s. The man was an architect, a neat freak, and the executive chief steward of the Western Division. George started putting together this Mazda GLC when Geoff was in college.
Geoff took a semester off in 1983 to help his dad build it and got to work alongside notoriety. They had factory Mazda support, and some friends at Penske Racing helped with the engineering. John Collins–the crew chief for Ford’s 1967 Le Mans effort when their GT40 won the race with A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney at the wheel–did a lot of the fabrication. “He was an absolute artist with metal,” Geoff recalls. Geoff himself cut and shaped metal for the car.
The car was destined for the IMSA RS Series Champion Spark Plugs Challenge. The Mazda RX-3 had dominated the series for quite some time, but the last RX-3 was sold in 1978; Mazda wanted to move official support to something they currently sold in dealerships. Front-wheel drive was starting to become a big deal at about that time, and they put their efforts into their newer, piston-engined economy car: the GLC.
Last of Its Kind
A total of 12 factory-backed cars were built, but Geoff has talked to all their previous owners and confirmed: His is one of two that still exist, and the only one running. Though the series was ostensibly designed for lightly modified street cars, this GLC saw some pretty serious work.
The Koteles car shifted the engine down 1.5 inches and back almost 3 inches to improve weight distribution. This also got the axles lined up more directly with the hubs. Moving the engine wasn’t technically allowed, but they did a good job making it look factory. The tech…
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