Drake Kemper Wins First MX-5 Cup Season Race by 0.06 Seconds
Mazda’s MX-5 Cup Racing series, being comprised of cars making just 181 horsepower, tends to offer very competitive racing, but even in that context, 0.06 seconds is a spectacularly close winning margin.
Livestreamed for free on Saturday, the inaugural race of the MX-5 Cup season took place at the Circuit of the Americas, where track limits seem to mean very little. Depending on how much drivers cared about their suspension, they might have found themselves further from the track than the width of the track itself, having a chat with the wall or the nearby gravel.
The race also marked the launch of the new Global MX-5 Cup car, which features the new, higher-revving Skyactive-G engine offered in the 2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata and rides on BFGoodrich Tires.
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The race lasted 45 minutes and by the final lap, five of the 31 drivers were in contention for the win. Bryan Ortiz, who won opening race last year, almost repeated the feat, but ultimately finished just 0.0664 seconds behind Drake Kemper, who put up a stout defense and was just barely able to fend of Ortiz’s last-ditch attack in the final corner.
The quality of the racing was worth a watch as well. There was overtaking aplenty, with drivers drafting and lightly banging into each other at every opportunity, while dodging the sausage curbs designed for bigger, faster cars.
A second race took place on Sunday, and though it wasn’t quite as close, it was still an entertaining watch. Selin Rollan, who had won the second COTA race last year and been named Rookie of the Year, won once more with a comfortable five-second margin ahead of Kemper, while this time Ortiz could do no better than fifth.
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