{"id":2605,"date":"2020-10-10T16:44:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-10T16:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2020-10-12T16:45:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T16:45:42","slug":"rookie-thomas-scores-first-global-mazda-mx-5-cup-pole-in-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/10\/rookie-thomas-scores-first-global-mazda-mx-5-cup-pole-in-new-jersey\/","title":{"rendered":"Rookie Thomas Scores First Global Mazda MX-5 Cup Pole in New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILLVILLE, N.J. (October 10, 2020)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Rookie and Mazda Road to 24 Scholarship recipient Jared Thomas (No. 96 Carter Racing Enterprises) earned his first Global Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich\u00ae Tires pole on Saturday. His teammate, Michael Carter (No. 08 Carter Racing Enterprises) will line up next to him on the front row for Sunday\u2019s Round Nine race at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP).<\/p>\n

Very few Global Mazda MX-5 Cup drivers have been to NJMP before, Thomas included. But you wouldn\u2019t know that from watching his lap times through practice and qualifying as the Scholarship racer proved to be a quick study.<\/p>\n

Going into qualifying, Thomas and Carter knew they\u2019d have a small window to set their best time during the 20-minute qualifying session. Global Mazda MX-5 Cup drivers must start the race on the same tires they qualified with, and as NJMP is tough on tires, keeping your qualifying lap count to a minimum was important.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult trying to get that perfect lap,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThe draft is still worth a half-second, so it\u2019s important to get that, but you really only have four laps to get it. So, getting the fast lap in that tight timespan was kind of stressful. We managed to pull it off. I\u2019m super excited for my first pole and I\u2019ve never even been to this race track before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019 maiden pole position came courtesy of a 1:31.9766-second lap time. That\u2019s more than two seconds faster than the previous lap record which was set in 2009. MX-5 Cup hasn\u2019t been to NJMP since 2010; an entirely new car and transmission has been introduced since then, so it was no surprise to see the record reset.<\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019s time was only 0.0961-second faster than teammate Carter who he will share the front row with on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving both cars on the front row is great,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cHopefully we can do something with it tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two recent race winners start from row two: Gresham Wagner (No. 5 Spark Performance) and Robert Noaker (No. 13 Robert Noaker Racing\/Slipstream Performance).<\/p>\n

Noaker had been the MX-5 Cup Championship leader through the first eight rounds, until the most recent race saw Carter eclipse him by a slim two points. With only four races left in the 2020 season, the competition is intense and the $200,000 Mazda prize for the Champion is up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Both MX-5 Cup races at NJMP will take place on Sunday; Round Nine is scheduled for 9:45am ET, while Round 10 will begin at 1pm ET. Both races will have live timing and camera feeds on\u00a0www.mx-5cup.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MILLVILLE, N.J. (October 10, 2020)\u00a0\u2013 Rookie and Mazda Road to 24 Scholarship recipient Jared Thomas (No. 96 Carter Racing Enterprises) earned his first Global Mazda MX-5 [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-mazda-mx-5-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2607,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions\/2607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}