{"id":6431,"date":"2023-08-27T07:57:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-27T11:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=6431"},"modified":"2023-08-28T07:59:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T11:59:15","slug":"thomas-wins-at-vir-after-wild-mazda-mx-5-cup-race-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/27\/thomas-wins-at-vir-after-wild-mazda-mx-5-cup-race-finish\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Wins at VIR After Wild Mazda MX-5 Cup Race Finish"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALTON, Va. (August 27, 2023)<\/strong> \u2013 Reigning Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich\u00ae Tires Champion Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) was declared the Round 12 race winner after an incident on the final lap led to a post-race penalty. He extended his points lead over teammate Aaron Jeansonne (No. 24 JTR Motorsports Engineering) who finished second.<\/p>\n

It was difficult to keep up with the number of lead changes during the 45-minute race, which was somehow even more thrilling than Saturday\u2019s event. There was never a clear leader, instead a pack of 11 cars broke away from the field, running nose-to-tail.<\/p>\n

At the front of the train, Gresham Wagner (No. 5 Spark Performance) and Connor Zilisch (No. 72 Hixon Motor Sports) traded the lead several times, with Max Opalski (No. 2 Copeland Motorsports), Nate Cicero (No. 83 McCumbee McAleer Racing) and Jeansonne taking their turns at the front as well.<\/p>\n

With 10 minutes to go, the pack of 11 dwindled to a pack of seven. Michael Carter (No. 19 Saito Motorsports) and Thomas were waiting in the wings for anyone to make a wrong move.<\/p>\n

Based on Saturday\u2019s finish, most expected the move for the win to happen in the final turn, but this time it happened several turns before. Carter, who was in fifth, bumped into the back of Jeansonne in the Rollercoaster and caused a chain reaction of hits up to the leader. This knocked Wagner, Zilisch and Opalski into the grass.<\/p>\n

As Jeansonne scrambled to stay on track, Carter and Thomas sailed past. Jeansonne pulled it together just in time to hold off Cicero and crossed the line in third.<\/p>\n

Race officials deemed Carter to be the instigator of the madness and handed him a drive-through penalty post-race, which effectively removed him from the podium and gave the win to Thomas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a hard-fought battle at the front,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThe leaders were getting pretty dicey and I was hanging out, saving tires and waiting for the end. I ended up being in the right place at the right time. There was some contact at the end and I came across the line in second.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win extends Thomas\u2019 lead in the MX-5 Cup point standings with only two more rounds to go. His nearest rival for the 2023 title and the $250,000 prize that comes with it, is teammate Jeansonne, who finished second.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an interesting race,\u201d Jeansonne said. \u201cBoth of these races have been the hottest of the year. We had a strong backup car that we were able to put on pole yesterday. I ran toward the front all day and I tried to be smart and pick my spots and think about what I wanted to do for the last couple of laps. When I was told we were coming to the white flag, I knew I had to go for it. I got a push from behind going into Rollercoaster on the last lap. It moved a lot of people out of the way and shuffled things up. It was an interesting finish, but I\u2019m really proud of the team and all the hard work they put in this weekend, so coming away with a good finish is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The podium was a relief for Jeansonne who had mechanical issues that ended his race early on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a few bad-luck races, so it felt really good to stand on the podium again. It gives us a fighting chance going into the finale at Road Atlanta for the $250,000 prize.\u201d<\/p>\n

MX-5 Cup rookies have their eyes on an $80,000 prize for Rookie of the Year. With a win on Saturday and a third-place finish on Sunday, Cicero strengthens his lead in the rookie points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe led a couple of laps, which is great,\u201d Cicero said. \u201cI was having quite a bit of fun. It was really tricky with the car overheating as soon as you tried to push anyone. \u00a0The weekend was a nine out of ten; a great weekend. I love this place and to get these solid results, I\u2019ll take that, but there\u2019s always more to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just like Saturday, Opalski barely missed the podium on Sunday, finishing fourth.<\/p>\n

Rookie Thomas Annunziata (No. 10 Hixon Motor Sports) completed the top five and stays within striking distance of Cicero for the Rookie of the Year title.<\/p>\n

Both races are available to view on the RACER YouTube<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

As expected, the 2023 MX-5 Cup Championship will come down to the final two races at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, October 11 \u2013 13. Both races will be streamed live on RACER.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALTON, Va. (August 27, 2023) \u2013 Reigning Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich\u00ae Tires Champion Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) was declared the [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-feature","category-mazda-mx-5-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431","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=6431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6433,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6431\/revisions\/6433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}