MARTINSVILLE, Va. — With lap after lap of side-by-side racing for the lead, a late race green-white-checkered shootout for victory, and a close margin of victory, the first Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin race on an oval lived up to the hype at Martinsville Speedway.
Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) took home $25,000 and a Martinsville clock at the end of the 105-lap exhibition race.
Thomas was nearly perfect in the single-day event at ‘The Short Track.’ He turned the fastest practice lap, set the pole time and led 82 laps, but coming to the final restart, he was behind Westin Workman (No. 13 BSI Racing).
Workman, who qualified second, was Thomas’ biggest opponent the entire race. The two were able to gap the rest of the field in the first half of the race, but Workman was on the attack with 20 laps to go and took over the lead after the duo dazzled the receptive Martinsville crowd as they ran side-by-side fighting for the lead without making contact before Thomas reclaimed the point.
“We were, I would say pacing is a good word,” Thomas said. “We were trying not to use our stuff up, because we knew it was going to be the last 25 when it was going to get hot and heavy. I could tell some of the guys around me were pushing really hard, so I was trying to play the game where I pushed a little bit and then would ride a little bit and kind of balance it out and make them use their stuff up to catch me. The second half was a different story.”
The Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup used a lot of traditional oval racing rules, including the ‘Choose Rule.’ When preparing for a restart from yellow, cars get to choose which lane they restart in, left or right. Drivers can gain positions by choosing a lane with less cars, but will be in the ‘slower’ lane for the restart. For the final restart, Workman chose the left lane and Thomas opted to stay behind Workman on the left side.
The pair sped into Turn One nose-to-tail, Workman appeared to get loose, and Thomas took rapid advantage.
“The outside here from practicing it and going back and watching a lot of video from all the other NASCAR series that run here, you know you’re never gonna get around the guy on the top unless something extreme happens,” Thomas said of his choice. “So, I figured my best bet was on the bottom, run with him and then see if we can make a move on him.
“I was trying not to get bumped and run myself,” Thomas said. “Because the 31 [Landen Lewis] was coming down. He was right on my bumper, and we all went in there and Weston got in a little hot.”
Workman nearly fell off the podium all together, but was able to collect himself and reclaim second. There was not enough time to catch Thomas though, who won by 0.374-second.
Along with a $25,000 check, Thomas also picked up a famed Martinsville clock for his history-making win.
“[The clock] is gonna go in the shop for a while, and it’s going to stay there for a couple weeks, so all these guys that made this happen-all my crew guys-so they can enjoy it too.”
Unlike Thomas, who came into the event with a solid background in oval racing, Workman was racing on an oval for the first time. He didn’t get the clock or the big check, but Workman did earn an impressive $10,000 for finishing second.
“I thought we ran pretty well,” Workman said. “I thought we did pretty much everything right tonight. I felt like I wasn’t given a chance there in Turn One on the restart to really hold the position. There was literally nothing I could do, but happy with second place 10 grand in my pocket.”
The highest finishing driver without Mazda MX-5 Cup experience was Landen Lewis (No. 31 McCumbee McAleer Racing). Lewis qualified fourth but struggled to stay in the top five for the first half of the race. He excelled at restarts however, and nearly bested Workman for second on the final restart but went on to finish third in his first MX-5 Cup race and collected $7,000.
“I was kind of riding around, trying to bide my time, watching the laps go down, and then all of a sudden, I was getting shipped and moved and beat and banged,” Lewis said. “I come on the radio and I’m like ‘I need to man up. This is no joke. These guys are racing hard every single lap.’ I just manned up and tried to get in there as much as I could. It was really fun.
“I felt like we had a top-three car right there at the end for sure. Before that caution come out, the leader and second, they were in a different zip code, so we just had what we had, but I learned a lot and would love to do this again.”
Veteran Mazda pilot Tom Long (No. 8 McCumbee McAleer Racing), who is usually working in race control during MX-5 Cup races, couldn’t resist the chance to race at Martinsville and ended the day one spot shy of the podium, but $5,000 richer.
Another MX-5 Cup newcomer, but Spec Miata ace, Capers Zentmeyer (No. 99 Spark Performance) completed the top five. It was a fairytale ending for Zentmeyer, who is a Martinsville native and qualified 14th, but played his hand wisely and ended up with a fifth-place finish and $4,000.