{"id":513,"date":"2017-09-28T14:40:45","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T14:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=513"},"modified":"2017-10-24T15:24:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T15:24:46","slug":"battery-tender-global-mazda-mx-5-cup-presented-by-bfgoodrich-tires-2017-awards-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/28\/battery-tender-global-mazda-mx-5-cup-presented-by-bfgoodrich-tires-2017-awards-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Battery Tender Global Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented By BFgoodrich Tires: 2017 Awards Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>IRVINE, Calif. (28 September 2017)<\/strong> \u2013 The 2017 Battery Tender Global Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires featured passing.\u00a0 Lots of passing.\u00a0 In 12 races, there were over 2,000 passes for position.\u00a0 It also featured awards.\u00a0 Big awards.\u00a0 $200,000 for the champion and $50,000 for the rookie-of-the-year being the most lucrative.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Emerging as the 2017 Global Mazda MX-5 champion was Patrick Gallagher.\u00a0 The 24-year old Gallagher, from Thornville, Ohio, drove his No. 29 McCumbee McAleer MX-5 to eight race wins. This tied the series record set by Todd Lamb in 2009.\u00a0 Gallagher finished on the podium on 11 of 12 races, scored six pole positions, set four fast laps, and led 38% of all laps. Gallagher thanked his parents for being at every one of his races since he was in quarter midgets at age six.\u00a0 He also thanked his longtime partners Howard Concrete Pumping and ModSpace.\u00a0 He also thanked Mazda for giving racers with limited budgets the opportunity to earn large scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>By winning the championship Gallagher earned a $200,000 MRT24 Scholarship to use in the 2018 race season. When accepting the check from Mazda Motorsports director John Doonan, Gallagher teased that he might announce his 2018 plans in two weeks.\u00a0 Gallagher plans to return to Mazda Raceway in three weeks seeking to add another $75,000 to his bank account at the Global Mazda MX-5 Cup Challenge.<\/p>\n<p>John Doonan observed that, \u201c2017 opened up a new chapter for the MX-5 Cup, working with INDYCAR and Andersen Promotions.\u00a0 We continued our cost effective opportunity for entry level professional sports car racing, while advancing it to a new level.\u00a0 We are proud of the on-track action, the parity between competitors, and having great partners and teams.\u00a0 We congratulate Patrick Gallagher, Robert Stout, McCumbee-McAleer Racing, and the entire MX-5 Cup grid.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be making some exciting announcements, including our 2018 schedule, in the weeks and months ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Gallagher was not the only racer completing a great season. 2016 MX-5 Cup champion Nathanial Sparks (No. 8 Sick Sideways Racing), seeking to become the first ever two-time MX-5 Cup champion, ended up as the runner-up this season, and earned the highly coveted \u201cSpirit of Mazda Award\u201d.\u00a0 The award recognizes the racer that best embodies the qualities of Mazda including the challenger spirit and the pursuit of constant improvement.\u00a0 Known as \u201cSparky\u201d within the paddock, Sparks humorous comments about what the series means to him were among the highlights of the evening.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Stout (No. 28 McCumbee-McAleer Racing) earned third place in the championship and the Rookie-of-the-Year (RoY) honors.\u00a0 New for 2017, Mazda added a $50,000 award to the RoY prize making it an intense battle between Stout, Bryan Ortiz (No. 4 Copeland Motorsports), and Matt Cresci (No 51 Slipstream Performance).\u00a0 Stout earned two wins on the way to scoring the $50,000.<\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, the McCumbee-McAleer Racing (MMR) team was recognized as the Team of the Year.\u00a0 The team won ten of the 12 races, including four 1-2 finishes.\u00a0 Team manager Jonathan Gibbons thanked team partners Modspace, Charles Paquin, and the Monticello Motor Club. MMR team member Jim Vann was honored as the Mechanic of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>New for 2017 was a fan voted for award for the \u201cMazda Move of the Year\u201d.\u00a0 Racers submitted on-board videos with the three finalists being voted on via an online ballot.\u00a0 Winning the award was Patrick Wilmot (No. 06 GB Racing) for his outside pass of three cars, in the rain, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About MX-5 Cup:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The MX-5 Cup racecars start as complete MX-5 Miata road cars from the Mazda Hiroshima, Japan, factory before being transported to engineering development partner Long Road Racing in Statesville, North Carolina, where they are converted into a race car. The process includes disassembly of the production car, welding and paint of a full roll cage and interior and assembly of the racecar, adding more than 250 motorsports-specific parts. Other components of the car, including the Mazda SKYACTIV-G 2.0-liter engine are sealed to ensure even competition and a cost-effective platform.<\/p>\n<p>The Battery Tender Global Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires is the signature spec series for the Mazda Road to 24 (#MRT24), the sports car counterpart to the Mazda Road to Indy (#MRTI).\u00a0On both paths, Mazda-powered champions earn a Mazda scholarship to advance their career.\u00a0The MX-5 Cup champion earns a $200,000 scholarship.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Information on the car is online at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mazdamotorsports.com\/\">www.mazdamotorsports.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IRVINE, Calif. (28 September 2017) \u2013 The 2017 Battery Tender Global Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires featured passing.\u00a0 Lots of passing.\u00a0 In 12 races,<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-513","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\/513","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=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions\/554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}