This past weekend was the third round of the Mazda MX-5 Cup season at beautiful Barber Motorsports Park, where the series was part of the IndyCar event. We had the full gamut of weather, from beautiful spring temperatures to wild thunderstorms, and everything in between. But that didn’t keep the fans from showing up or the competition from putting on a great show!
After a dry practice day, we were greeted with the threat of thunderstorms all day Saturday, resulting in a wet qualifying and race one. This was a unique challenge in that there had been no previous wet-weather practice time, and competitors only had 15 minutes to come to grips with the wet conditions and put in their best qualifying effort.
My role with the series, as always, was to work with the Mazda Scholarship winners as they navigate their first season in MX-5 Cup. Additionally, with the excitement of the newly released Amazon Prime docu-series “First to the Finish,” which follows the female competitors in MX-5 Cup, I’m also getting the opportunity to work with three of them.
Working with the female drivers in the series has been especially fun as they all have a varying level of experience, from multiple seasons of MX-5 Cup racing to being first-time pro racers. That means the types of things we were working on varied to match each driver’s experience, such as more data-specific feedback for a more experienced driver or in-car video work to optimize the driving line for a newer driver. It was extremely rewarding to see all three of the drivers have big personal success at Barber, not just in the results but also in their development as series competitors.
In the end, we had spectacular racing despite the mixed conditions, and—amazingly—we still have only two race winners after six races this season!
You can get more details about the new endurance series at https://www.apex-one.us.
This coming week is a busy one for me, beginning with a trip to Sebring International Raceway to help my good buddies at ApexONE launch their new endurance series, which comes online this fall. We’re filming media content and track-specific items ahead of the first round of the endurance series, which will be a 10-hour race at Sebring this November. You can get more details on their website.
After Sebring, I head to Laguna Seca for the next round of the IMSA championship, where I’ll be working with Dean Neuls in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series. I’ll have a full report next week!