{"id":5203,"date":"2022-10-12T15:05:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=5203"},"modified":"2022-10-13T15:15:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T15:15:09","slug":"mazda-mx-5-cup-shootout-finalists-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/12\/mazda-mx-5-cup-shootout-finalists-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Mazda MX-5 Cup Shootout Finalists Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>October 12, 2021<\/strong> \u2013 Mazda Motorsports has revealed which 12 young drivers will compete for three scholarships worth a combined $260,000 to start their Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich\u00ae Tires career.<\/p>\n<p>The top prize in the MX-5 Cup Shootout is a scholarship valued at $110,000. Last year\u2019s big winner, Connor Zilisch, went on to become this season\u2019s MX-5 Cup Rookie of the Year, just missing out on claiming the overall championship by just 10 points.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, two $75,000 scholarships will be awarded. At least one of the three winners will be female, as part of Mazda\u2019s Women\u2019s Initiative to expand opportunities for women in motorsports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is our 15th Mazda MX-5 Cup Shootout,\u201d said Mazda Motorsports Program Manager Jonathan Applegate. \u201cThe program has lasted this long because it works. We\u2019ve seen that those who rise to the top in the Shootout tend to do the same in Mazda MX-5 Cup competition. Just look at our most recent season; last year\u2019s winner, Connor Zilisch, earned the rookie of the year title and the 2019 Shootout winner, Jared Thomas, won the championship. Drivers who compete in MX-5 Cup learn the race craft they need to compete anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s 12 finalists were chosen from a pool of nominees who were either automatically qualified by winning a championship in NASA, SCCA Club Racing or Spec MX-5 Challenge, or by an at-large nomination from their peers. In addition to their resume of racing accomplishments, nominees submitted videos focused on their off-track efforts and business acumen to help earn their spot in the Shootout.<\/p>\n<p>The MX-5 Cup Shootout takes place November 9 \u2013 10 at Sebring International Raceway. Drivers will attempt to impress the judges with their lap times, but also with their aptitude to review data, apply feedback and improve. Judges will have the opportunity to sit down with each driver to learn about their business strategies and potential to be a brand ambassador.<\/p>\n<p>Series partner Flis Performance will be on site with three MX-5 Cup cars plus engineers and data analysts. Flis will manage the ballasting process for the cars to ensure the kind of parity that the series is known for. Operational support will be provided by Andersen Promotions. Presenting sponsor BFGoodrich Tires will also be on hand providing tires.<\/p>\n<p>The MX-5 Cup Shootout Scholarship winners will be announced at the close of the competition on Thursday, November 10.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>2023 MX-5 Cup Shootout Finalists<\/u><\/strong><br \/>\nAlex Berg \u2013 Spec MX-5 Challenge &amp; Spec Miata \/ NASA Teen Mazda Challenge (at-large)<br \/>\nAlexander Searle \u2013 Spec MX-5 Challenge (at-large)<br \/>\nClayton Ketcher \u2013 Spec Miata, NASA Teen Mazda Challenge (at-large)<br \/>\nGrant West \u2013 Spec MX-5 Challenge (at-large)<br \/>\nHeather Hadley \u2013 Legends (at-large)<br \/>\nLaurin Brallier \u2013 Spec Miata (at-large)<br \/>\nNate Cicero \u2013 Spec MX-5 Challenge (at-large)<br \/>\nNathan Saxon \u2013 Spec MX-5 Challenge (at-large)<br \/>\nSydney McKee \u2013 Spec Miata (at-large)<br \/>\nThomas Annunziata \u2013 Spec MX-5 Challenge (at-large &amp; automatic)<br \/>\nWestin Workman \u2013 Spec MX-5 Challenge (at-large)<br \/>\nWyatt Couch \u2013 Spec MX-5 Challenge, Spec Miata (at-large &amp; automatic)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 12, 2021 \u2013 Mazda Motorsports has revealed which 12 young drivers will compete for three scholarships worth a combined $260,000 to start their Idemitsu Mazda<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5203","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\/5203","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=5203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5205,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5203\/revisions\/5205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}