After 19 seasons of staging races on a number of the finest street and road circuits in North America, the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup introduced by Michelin race at Martinsville Speedway might be not like any MX-5 Cup race earlier than it. For its first oval race, the collection is adopting a number of the conventional quick observe oval traditions. What is going to that seem like?
First, qualifying might be single automobile. Every driver will obtain two laps to set their quickest time, and all vehicles are impounded after qualifying.
The race is 100 laps with a stage break at lap 50. Any warning laps earlier than the stage break don’t depend and subsequently, no driver can lose a lap. The stage break is simply 5 minutes and groups could solely carry out gentle bodywork restore and small setup adjustments.
On the stage break, the motive force in first place receives $3,500, the motive force working second will get $2,000 and the motive force in third will get $1,000.
For the ultimate 50 laps following the stage break, throughout a warning, the primary automobile behind the chief that could be a lap down receives a free cross. This sends the automobile to the again of the sector and provides the motive force a lap again. In IMSA, that is known as ‘the cross round.’
Restarts are the place issues get actually enjoyable. Usually, in Mazda MX-5 Cup, restarts are single file, however at Martinsville they are going to be side-by-side. Not solely that, however drivers will get to decide on which lane (excessive or low) they want to begin from. As every automobile approaches a particular mark on the observe, they may select a lane and should keep in that lane till the inexperienced flag is again out. This implies drivers don’t essentially restart within the place they have been in previous to the yellow. Automobiles can merely achieve place underneath yellow by choosing the lane with much less vehicles. Drivers who obtain a penalty should begin behind the longest line.
In the end the race should finish with a inexperienced, white, checkered end. As soon as the white flag is displayed, the following flag must be the checkered flag.
On the finish, the winner will go dwelling with $25,000 and the normal Martinsville Ridgeway grandfather clock. Second place receives $10,000, third will get $7,000, fourth takes dwelling $5,000 and fifth collects $4,000. Sixth by means of tenth place obtain $1,000 every. All complete greater than $60,000 might be handed out in Saturday’s race.
“There was quite a lot of thought and planning that went into making this format, and everybody labored to combine some guidelines and traditions from the oval codecs, in addition to creating a race that ought to see the form of aggressive racing that Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup is understood for,” Mazda Motorsports Senior Supervisor Jonathan Applegate mentioned. “This has been a extremely collaborative effort between the collection, our buddies at NASCAR and Martinsville, in addition to Andersen Promotions and Flis Efficiency. The assist from Whelen, Michelin and Sunoco have been excellent, and we’re all very wanting to see how issues play out on Saturday.”
If you happen to can’t be within the stands at Martinsville on Oct, 26, be sure you’re on the IMSA YouTube channel to observe the reside stream. Inexperienced flag is scheduled for six:00pm ET.
