The three major 24-hour races in the world are Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Daytona (USA) and Le Mans (France), where Mazda became the first Japanese car to win overall in 1991 with the rotary-powered 787B.

However, contrary to popular believe, Japan has an additional 24-hour race dubbed the “NAPAC Fuji Super Tec 24 Hours Race” under the ENEOS Super Taikyu Series 2023 that saw the Mazda Spirit Racing factory effort complete Round 2 with a car that ran on cooking oil.

The Super Endurance Race is one of the most popular endurance races in Japan, with 7 races held annually and all races last 3 to 5 hours except for the Fuji Speedway edition, that represents the flagship round as a 24-hour edition.

Nonetheless, over Round 2 held from May 26 - 28, the Mazda factory effort decided to take it out of the frying pan and into the fire with the “Mazda Spirit Racing Mazda 3 Bio Concept” that ran on biodiesel fuel.

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Hiroshima’s number 55 car completed the 24-hour race with a diesel engine that ran on Euglena’s next-generation biodiesel fuel Susteo Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO). Apart from promoting carbon-neutral next-generation biodiesel fuel, the use of HVO was also a platform to challenge for driving pleasure as the race comprised kei cars rebodied to resemble full-sized cars, full-fledged race cars such as the GT3-class models and prototype cars (carbon-neutral fuel cars) that ran with participating drivers ranging from professionals to amateurs.

The last class that promotes carbon-neutral fuels is dedicated to vehicles developed mainly by automakers, and 5 carmakers are slugging it out in that field.

Each participant in that class either runs on hydrogen fuel or carbon-neutral fuel and joining Mazda’s cooking oil effort is Toyota with a liquefied-hydrogen fuel vehicle that has evolved from hydrogen gas with Subaru, Honda and Nissan completing the class with carbon-neutral fuel cars.

HVO fuel is made from waste food oil and doesn’t contain any fossil fuels. The biodiesel fuel has the same molecular structure as light oil and has the advantage of less load on the engine as well.

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The latter played perfectly into the team’s 24-hour race strategy that included fuel consumption calculation and pit strategy as well.

However, it wasn’t a perfect race as Mazda’s No. 55 car that ran on HVO encountered trouble on the track, stopping suddenly on the side of the track at around 11.30 pm due to a hub bolt that snapped, causing the tyre to come off.

Nonetheless, the driver managed to limp the car back to the pits where the mechanics managed to refit a new hub and send the car back on track where it completed the race at 3:00 pm.

This marked an amazing effort for the team as they were forced to retire last year close to the end but everyone was pleased that things worked out perfectly this year with their HVO endeavour.