After graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a Mechanical Engineering degree, our guest joined Mazda R&D in Irvine, California. And while at Mazda he worked on the original Miata, second-generation MX-6, first-gen MPV, and third-gen RX-7. While he loved the people and the work at Mazda, he wanted to try something new… working at a larger car company. That opportunity came in 1993 when he joined Ford as a layout engineer in the electric vehicle department. And in 1997, he was able to transfer to the Ford Motorsport effort in the SCCA Trans-Am Championship. While the Ford experience was professionally rewarding, he wished to return home to Southern California.
A little later, acting as the EV Q&A technical expert on a Nissan media event in 2000 – a life changing event that would lead to his career from engineering to communications – He became the Nissan Product PR Manager from 2001 through 2006 where he worked on every Nissan brand product launch, including the return of the Z, the launch of NISMO, and the first Nissan 360 global event.
Fast forwarding to today… our Break/Fix guest is one of those legendary behind the scenes people in Motorsports, Dean Case – Public Relations manager for SRO Motorsports America, where he works to promote the premier GT and Touring Car series in the U.S. And he’s here to share some of his most fascinating paddock stories with us… As if the intro wasn’t enough, right? … please join us in welcoming Dean Case to Break/Fix
Make a statement. Win a scholarship. Save a life – Project Yellowlight
Project Yellow Light is a scholarship competition designed to bring about change. People know distracted driving is dangerous, but they do it anyway. As an applicant you have one clear mission: create a PSA to encourage your friends to avoid distracted driving, specifically using your phone while driving. Whether it’s sending a text, commenting on a photo, or messaging your friends in your favorite app, it’s never ok to message while driving. Together, we can spread the word and help keep our roads safer. Learn more
In our discussion with Dean, we cover topics like:
- The answer is always Miata – let’s talk about your work on the Miata team #zoom-zoom
- You were at the height of TransAm at Ford; tell us some of those stories?
- Famous Friends: Lyn St. James, Tommy Kendall, Sylvia Wilkinson, Paul Newman, Jay Leno, Garth Stein, Tim Considine and others.
- Your time with Nissan and NISMO.
- Your work with Formula SAE – why is SAE so important?
- Project Yellow Light
- We had Greg Gill on the show talking about SRO > How are you connected? and how did you end up at SRO? What are your plans for the program? The Brand?
- What other super cool things don’t we know about Dean Case?
- and much, much more!
Did you know Dean worked for NISMO?
Dean has remarked that the only topics he’s somewhat qualified to talk about are cars, motorsports, animal welfare, and his strange obsession with music related to cars. But if you’re into that… you can follow him on LinkedIn. And be sure to check out all the changes coming to our favorite Touring Car series SRO America, sponsored by AWS & Crowdstrike, coming very soon and thanks in part to Dean’s hard work!
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
Formula SAE challenges students to conceive, design, fabricate, and compete with small formula-style racing cars. Teams spend 8-12 months designing, building, and preparing their vehicles for a competition. These cars are judged in a series of static and dynamic events, including technical inspection, cost, presentation, engineering design, solo performance trials and high performance endurance.
SAE International is a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source forthe engineering profession. By uniting more than 145,000 engineers and technical experts, we drive knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries. Learn more!
Dean Case – Auto.biography
Dean Case progressed from race fan as a kid, to automotive engineer as an adult, before devoting the past 15+ years of his professional career to automotive communications with an emphasis on motorsports and engineering PR.
After graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a Mechanical Engineering degree, he joined Mazda R&D in Irvine, California. While at Mazda he worked on the original Miata, second-generation MX-6, first-gen MPV, and third-gen RX-7.
During his early professional days, Dean was the editor of the SAE SoCal newsletter where he honed his writing skills as an unpaid volunteer. He developed his speaking skills by visiting many of the local engineering schools to talk about careers in the auto industry.
While Dean loved the people and work at Mazda, he wanted to try working at the main engineering office of a larger car company. That opportunity came in 1993 when he joined Ford as a layout engineer in the electric vehicle department. In 1997, while at Ford he was able to transfer to the Ford Motorsport effort in the SCCA Trans-Am Championship. 1997 was the year that Tommy Kendall shattered the records, winning 11-straight races. Ford swept all 13 races and the manufacturers championship, and then departed the series.
While the Ford experience was professionally rewarding, Dean wished to return home to Southern California. That move came in 1998 when he joined Nissan as a Product Investigation Engineer where he fell back into the EV world, being one of the lead American engineers on the Nissan Altra EV, and Nissan Hypermini EV test programs.
Dean was acting as the EV Q&A technical expert on a Nissan media event in 2000, which would lead to his career change from engineering to communications. Dean became the Nissan Product PR Manager in 2001 and retained that position until 2006. During this time Dean worked on every Nissan brand product launch, including the return of the Z, the launch of NISMO, and the first Nissan 360 global event. Dean was also given responsibility for motorsports, corporate heritage, environmental topics, and product recalls, an eclectic grab bag of expertise.
In 2006, Nissan relocated their U.S. headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee and Dean began a freelance career based in Southern California.
His first client in 2006 was SAE International, managing the inaugural Formula SAE West student engineering competition. It was the perfect match for his skills in both engineering and event management.
Dean was then reunited with Mazda. Dean became the Communications Officer for Mazda Motorsports (aka MAZDASPEED) in 2006 and spent the next 11 years on the road promoting the Zoom-Zoom nation from the SCCA Runoffs to Le Mans. With minimal overlap between the car review worlds and motorsports Dean worked to educate the car review journalists on what, where, and why Mazda races. He also made sure the motorsports press knew what Mazda had in the showroom. He especially enjoyed working with the younger drivers in helping them develop their business and PR plans.
His primary client today is SRO Motorsports America, where he works to promote the premier GT and Touring Car series in the U.S.
Dean has also worked with Motivo Engineering since 2012 where he has been able to use his engineering background to explain the amazingly complex projects that Motivo has been solving.
If Dean has a special skill it is in bringing together people and organizations that would not appear to have anything to do with one another for mutual benefit. His favorite program has been in the promotion of shelter animal adoptions on Mazda race cars. What began, as a one-off with MUTTS Comics and the Humane Society of the United States in 2007 has become a strong partnership with the SPCA for Monterey County, located directly across the street from Mazda Raceway.
In 2012, Dean connected the dots between Mazda Motorsports and Project Yellow Light. The program showcases young Mazda racers as spokespersons for distracted driver awareness.
If you bought a copy of the recently reissued Stainless Steel Carrot, you can thank Dean as he nudged author Sylvia Wilkinson for a decade. He succeeded by pitching it as a fundraiser for animal welfare organizations.
Dean has remarked that the only topics he’s somewhat qualified to talk about are cars, motorsports, animal welfare, and his strange obsession with music related to cars. Dean has gathered up well in excess of 1,400 car songs, ranging from the usual – think “Little Deuce Coupe”, to the bizarre – think “My Bloody Yugo” or “I’d Kill for a Green Miata”. What started out as mix-tapes for friends resulted in a Grammy-nominated four CD box set by Rhino Records in 1999, where Dean earned an Associate Producer credit.
Dean has been an active volunteer with SAE, MPG, AARWBA, Friends of Torrance Animals, the Motorsports Hall of Fame, PAWS/LA and Food Forward over the years. He is happily married, living walking distance to the beach in a Redondo Beach condo covered in cat fur.
