There isn’t much that IMSA isn’t doing right at the moment. On Thursday the sanctioning body announced that it would be bringing its entry-level racing series, Mazda MX-5 Cup, to a NASCAR oval for the first time. Yes, MX-5 Cup has run at Daytona in the past, but only on the road course. This October the series will run 100 laps of the Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Racing is always at its best when series make interesting and fun choices, and this absolutely counts.
Like all IMSA series, MX-5 Cup typically runs on road and street courses. The series’ presenting sponsor, Whelen, is also the presenting sponsor of the NASCAR Modified Tour. Working with IMSA and NASCAR, Whelen managed to line up both of its title series at Martinsville for the Modified Tour season finale. Martinsville, lovingly referred to as “The Paperclip”, is one of the best short tracks on the circuit, because the two ends of the track have a different radius, making for difficult setups and tricky driving.
If you want to know what MX-5 Cup is all about, just watch the last ten minutes of the first race of the season back in January. There’s as much bumping and banging as a NASCAR Cup race, but these cars are based on actual real street cars and prepped in almost exactly the same way. With a standard MX-5 engine, these cars don’t have a ton of power, so drafting and carrying momentum is extremely important.
I expect this event at Martinsville to have more passing in 100 laps than Formula One sees in an entire season. This should be a whole lot of fun, and I look forward to watching it all go down this fall.
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