{"id":8811,"date":"2026-06-02T13:24:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=8811"},"modified":"2026-08-16T13:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:27:09","slug":"mid-ohio-breaks-the-mazda-mx-5-cup-drough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/mid-ohio-breaks-the-mazda-mx-5-cup-drough\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid-Ohio Breaks the Mazda MX-5 Cup Drough"},"content":{"rendered":"

EXINGTON, Ohio (June 2, 2026) \u2013<\/strong> It has been a quiet three months since the checkered flag flew in St. Petersburg, but it\u2019s finally time for the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin to return to the racetrack for Rounds 5 and 6 this weekend. The setting is Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which never fails to produce some of the best racing of the season. A field of 39 cars is expected, including a few new faces that could shake up the championship.
\n
\nWhelen Mazda MX-5 Cup arrives in Ohio following a weekend that featured two first-time race winners on the streets of St. Petersburg. One of them, Bobby Gossett (No. 44 BSI Racing) took over the points lead as a result. In his sophomore season, Gossett leads two-time champion Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) by 20 points with a long season yet to go.<\/p>\n

Another first-time winner at St. Petersburg was Justin Adakonis (No. 23 McCumbee McAleer Racing) who finds himself third in the point standings entering Mid-Ohio. Also in his sophomore season, Adakonis would likely be leading the championship if not for a malfunctioning transponder in Race 1 at St. Pete, which forced him to come into the pits for a new one.<\/p>\n

One driver looking to add his name to the first-time race winner<\/em> list this season is Nathan Nicholson (No. 56 Advanced Autosports) and he nearly got his first win at Mid-Ohio last year. He led the field to the white flag in Race 2, but was passed by Ethan Goulart, who went on to win his first MX-5 Cup race that day. It\u2019s hard to believe that after 31 races, the ever-competitive Nicholson is still searching for that first MX-5 Cup race win.<\/p>\n

Leading the rookie chase is Frankie Barroso (No. 48 Spark Performance), who scored two top-five finishes at St. Pete. He is sixth in the point standings but would be higher had he not picked up a post-race penalty in Race 2 at Daytona.<\/p>\n

Speaking of rookies, this year\u2019s MX-5 Cup Shootout Scholarship winner Max Stallone (No. 3 Wheels America Racing) has had a rocky start to his season but has been doing his homework. The Texan picked up two Spec Miata race wins at Mid-Ohio during a SCCA weekend in May. Stallone was one of several MX-5 Cup drivers who took advantage of the SCCA event to get more laps around Mid-Ohio.<\/p>\n

Adding some international flavor to the entry list is Luke Pullen (No. 21 Hendricks Motorsports). The Brit is making his MX-5 Cup debut this weekend. He has a season of Spec MX5 under his belt with two podium finishes at Mid-Ohio. Pullen has been a finalist for the Mazda MX-5 Cup Shootout the past two years.<\/p>\n

More drivers making their series debut this weekend include Massimo Sunseri (No. 15 BSI Racing), Michael O\u2019Dell (No. 46 JTR Motorsports Engineering) and Amilio DeLauro (No. 67 BSI Racing).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a grid packed with plenty of talent and potential at a track that consistently produces great racing. It\u2019s something you don\u2019t want to miss when MX-5 Cup returns to racing action. Round Five takes place Saturday, June 6 at 3:05pm ET. Round Six goes green at 10:10am ET on Sunday, June 7. Both races will be streamed live on the IMSA and RACER YouTube channels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXINGTON, Ohio (June 2, 2026) \u2013 It has been a quiet three months since the checkered flag flew in St. Petersburg, but it\u2019s finally time for [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8811","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\/8811","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=8811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8812,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811\/revisions\/8812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}