I had an '02 ES with the 2.0 that I ran for several years in FSP Solo 2. The car would kick ass in ITA for sure. Based on what I run in my ITA ACR Neon, I think that the protege could be the car to have. Makes good power and the minimum weight could definately be reached with a full build. AWR makes some good stuff for the protege, he makes alot of SM and Rx7 parts.

My car had Tokico illumina's with GC coilover sleeves with 300F 400R springs with Mazdaspeed rear bar and stru tower bar, mazdaspeed muffler and no name header with cat removed. Car ran very good and now I wish I kept it and built it as an ITA car. The car has a curb weight of 2494lbs, assume that between interior, sound deadening, undercoat and a/c, and stock exhaust you will knock off at least 350lbs. I would guess with a 180lb driver you would be at around 2400lbs with light fuel load. The vbersion you would want to build is the ES, you get the 4 wheel discs and 5 bolt wheels, although if you went with the es you would have to run 16" wheels since the 5 bolt cars came standard with 16's