Mariano Zavala

Mariano Tomás Zavala Ramirez (born March 2, 1983 in Barcelona, Anzoátegui, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan racing driver.

Early racing career and 2012
Zavala, with backing from Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA, began his career in the Nippon Open Wheel Tour in 2007. He only scored 2 points in 2007, and quickly made enemies; NOWT alumna Kiriki Hetsuno once confronted Zavala after he wrecked her out of the lead while going a lap down at Suzuka. Zavala entered the Pacific Racing Championship in 2011, where he did not do much better until he scored a surprise podium in the PRC race at Mount Panorama in 2012.

Later on in 2012, Zavala announced his interest in stock car racing after he, in his own words, grew "bored in open-wheel cars". Thanks to his financial banking, Zavala was given the opportunity to drive the third car for Xenos Racing at the 2012 Round of New York, where he managed to score points, though only 21 cars started the event.

To further develop his stock car skills, Xenos decided to place Zavala on their Xenos Development ARLA Elite Series team, replacing Jason Teller. Zavala's first ARLA start came at the race in Iowa, where he crashed out and finished 27th. However, his DNF was surprisingly not of his own doing.

Zavala's ARLA results were unremarkable until he finished second to Taylor Brillon twice in a row, but it must be noted that these results took place at the New York Autoring and Talladega Superspeedway, races that are notorious for being crapshoots.

Zavala then surprised further by winning his heat race for the Rockford 200, but was off the pace during the main event.

2013
After Xenos greatly reduced their motorsports activities before the 2013 racing season, Zavala was initially rumored to continue to drive in ARLA for the as always cash-strapped Team Burr. Instead, however, Zavala was picked up by Enterline Motorsports for their TM Lights campaign. After Ohio, Zavala has scored a pole and two top tens, but otherwise has not been much of a factor in the series.

After failing to qualify as a one-off for Karjala, Zavala would return to the Master Cup series at Ohio for Manticore Engineering. The team stated they were looking for new solutions to solve their lack of speed, but Zavala's sponsorship seemed to be a more likely cause for his hiring. Zavala would encounter misfortune in his first two starts, but would bounce back to score points at Road America, before giving his seat back to Chris Johaanes.