ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Justin Adakonis (No.23 McCumbee McAleer Racing) earned his first Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin win on the streets of St. Petersburg and held off two-time series champion Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) to do so.
The Round Four race started with a long caution to remove the heavily damaged cars of Matt Novak (No. 11 Advanced Autosports) and Jeremy Fletcher (No. 22 McCumbee McAleer Racing) but then commenced a long green-flag fight for the lead between Adakonis and Thomas.
Adakonis led the way on the lap seven restart, but Thomas took over the spot with a daring side-by-side moment from Turn Four through Turn Nine. The following lap, Adakonis used the very same move to retake the lead from Thomas.
The duo settled into a rhythm and began to pull away from Ethan Lampe (No. 31 Advanced Autosports), who was in his own fight with Saturday’s race winner, Bobby Gossett (No. 44 BSI Racing). The fight for the final podium spot enabled Adakonis and Thomas to pull away by more than three and a half seconds before another full-course caution came out.
It was during this caution that Adakonis became concerned that he might have used up his car holding off Thomas and was now vulnerable to an attack from Thomas on the restart.
“I didn’t have much left in the car,” Adakonis said. “I kind of burned through my tires trying to pull away. I just had to use everything I had left.”
When the green flag waved with four and a half minutes left on the race clock, Adakonis took a defensive posture into Turn One. It worked, but behind them, Ethan Jacobs’ (No. 99 JDH Racing) car came to a stop with damage in Turn Two. A disabled car meant a full-course caution was imminent.
Both drivers’ teams were telling them it was now or never, knowing a race-ending full-course caution would come out before the cars reached start/finish.
“(Car Chief) Stuart [McAleer] was yelling in my ear,” Adakonis said. “He was like ‘got a car off, car off. Go, go, go!’ Yeah. I figured his [Jared’s] team would tell him too.”
“I knew the yellow was gonna come,” Thomas said. “I could kind of tell by yesterday, with the way they let us race all the way back to the incident—I knew I had a few corners, so I tried the most of it.”
Thomas lunged inside of Adakonis entering the final turn, but slid wide, and Adakonis breezed past. He had momentum on his side and cruised to victory as the yellow flags came out and the race ended behind the safety car.
“This is amazing,” Adakonis said. “It was really emotional. I kind of started to tear up on that in lap. Everything just hits you. I got my parents in the stands and saw them cheering. I’ve got my girlfriend here on pit lane too. I can’t even describe It’s been so much hard work and time and effort. I’m so proud of all these guys. MMR, they give me a great car all year. They believed in me and I finally got it done.”
With plenty of experience at St. Pete, Thomas knew there was no such thing as waiting for the right moment to lead the race. When yellows are likely, he wants to be out front, setting the pace.
“At this place you can control the race from the lead,” Thomas said. “I wanted to get there if I could and obviously starting sixth was not ideal. I wanted to make my way to the front and kind of control if I could.
“Justin was quick, especially on the short runs, and he was very aggressive to come back at me. So, I made the choice: I said, ‘let’s make this a two-car race.’ I bid my time, stayed in line, give him a push when I could, and we got away.”
Lampe, a runner-up in the recent Mazda MX-5 Cup Shootout, was thrilled to score his first podium, especially after an incident in Saturday’s race. The damage prevented him from reaching the finish line and gave his crew a lot of work to do between races.
The Advanced Autosports crew made sure the Whelen and Sunoco number 31 was back together after our wreck early on in yesterday’s race. They worked so hard all through the night just to get the car ready right before race time. So to bring home a podium means a lot. I would have never expected my second weekend of the series to get a podium. I can’t thank everyone at Whelen, Sunoco, Molecule Frame, and all my other supporters for making this happen.
“At the end, Bobby [Gossett] had more pace than I did. I had him early on, and then as the race went on, the car got a little tight, and I was just hanging on there at the end. I was relieved to see the yellow, but I think I still could have hung on if we stayed green.”
Gossett managed to hang on to fourth place, even after a nasty brush with the wall on the exit of Turn 14.
Grant West (No. 50 Spark Performance) completed the top five and tied his best MX-5 Cup race finish.
