The Mazda RX-3 was one of four deserving cars from IMSA’s rich racing history enshrined earlier this month into the IMSA Hall of Fame during its fourth annual induction celebration during Motul Petit Le Mans weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta (MRRA)
Just two weeks prior to the IMSA Hall honor, a perfect example of the pioneer Mazda coupe was in action during the HSR Classic Road Atlanta 10 Hour Road Atlanta presented by Mission Foods at MRRA, catching the eye of more than one competitor and spectator.
Bill Strempel was in action in his great-looking 1977 No. 77 Mazda RX-3 throughout the HSR weekend, and he has owned or been close to the little rotary rocket for the last 40-plus years. His interest in RX-3 Mazdas and rotaries in general began when he and a friend went to a pro rally event.
“I’m a bit of a more aged person,” Strempel said. “The year was probably 1980. I was in high school. A friend of mine, Rob, who is still my best friend, introduced me to pro rally racing. Around the same time, Rob’s uncle – who was an SCCA racer – started taking us to the track and we met some guys that ran a showroom stock RX-3. I was hooked, I thought they were cool cars, and Rob and I started learning about Mazda rotaries and things like that. We went to the library and found books and made photocopies of them. That was our version of the internet back then. We learned all about rotaries.”
Strempel soaked in all he could about rotaries but the full details and history of the RX-3 he would soon acquire will never be known by him or likely anyone else.
“Rob was going to a community college, and he called me up one day,” Strempel said. “I was leaving school, and there’s a yellow RX-3 SP behind the fence. It looked like a towing yard, and it was all stripped. We determined it was stolen from California and stripped to the shell. It had a suspension on it, but that’s about it. Engine was gone. All the body panels were gone. Interior was gone, but it had a dashboard. I bought the car from the insurance company for $100 in an auction, but it sat in my garage for a while. I didn’t know what to do with it.”
Ultimately, Strempel found a purpose for the RX-3, debuting the car on track in 1987 and going on to shatter records while collecting a number of victories in SCCA Improved Touring.
Personal commitments eventually brought Strempel’s first tour with the RX-3 to an end, but years later he would have the opportunity to bring his “family member” back home.
“I raced the car for about five or six years and loved it, but then got married and started a business,” Strempel said. “So, I sold the car and the trailer and the van. The new owner drove it for a few seasons and decided he wanted to upgrade it to make it an E-Production car instead of an IT car. Then it kind of went from shop to shop for probably 20 years and never really got done.
“About three years ago, he called me up and said, ‘do you want to buy your own car back?’ So, I bought it. It needed to be restored, and the shops that had worked on it did some first-class stuff, but it had never been wired. It didn’t have any plumbing, brake lines, and things like that, so I had to finish it.”
After years away from the car, seeing the finally finished Mazda return to the track made the journey all the more meaningful.
“Aside from go-karts, I’ve never raced a piston engine on a track,” Strempel said. “I don’t know what that’s all about, but I cut my teeth on rotaries on road racing courses and I’m still driving that. It’s just really been special to have it come back to me and have a supportive wife that said, ‘this is your dream, go do your dream.’
“It’s been a blast. I get to talk about rotary stuff and people come up, wherever we go with the car, and are like ‘Wow, I haven’t seen one in forever.’ I’m surprised how many people are familiar with the car.”
Strempel and the RX-3 have found a home in HSR.
“I chose HSR for a reason,” Strempel said. “I could have gone back to SCCA or NASA, but I thought HSR is the place for us because these cars are historic. I’ve come to a lot of HSR events in the past as a spectator. To now be putting on the show is super cool.”
Next up on the 2026 HSR calendar is the HSR Daytona Classic 24 Hour presented by Mission Foods and the HSR Daytona Historics, November 11 – 15, at Daytona International Speedway.
