Jul 2, 2020
July 2, 2020 – Battery Tender® Global Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires® teams gathered at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for a single-day test on Wednesday. It marked the first series-sanctioned event of 2020 after the season was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A former champion and current team owner, Stevan McAleer, turned the quickest lap of the day, just ahead of 2019 Rookie of the Year Michael Carter.
It was a productive day for the full field as nineteen cars turned a combined 1,375 laps at the test. The day was split into a morning and afternoon session. McAleer (No. 1 McCumbee McAleer Racing) set the quickest lap in the morning, a 1:36.1998. In the afternoon session, Carter (No. 08 Carter Racing Enterprises) was quickest, but could not best McAleer’s hot lap from the morning session.
“The car we were driving was the car Robert Stout ran last year,” McAleer said. “We had a nice kid, Tom Coury, from Ohio, testing with us. My goal for the day was to go out and do some reference laps. Obviously, that turned out very well. We had a massive amount of pace and even more speed on the table.
“We’re thinking about me running for the full season, but we haven’t made our mind up yet,” he added.
Series regulars Gresham Wagner (No. 5 Spark Performance), Robert Noaker (No. 13 Copeland Motorsports) and Selin Rollan (No. 87 Sick Sideways Racing) completed the top five quickest of the day.
Mazda Road to 24 Scholarship Winner Jared Thomas (No. 96 Carter Racing Enterprises) ended the day in ninth.
The test was more than just a chance to work on setups and introduce rookies to the car, teams were also putting the new SADEV sequential gearbox through its paces. The newly mandated gearbox has been integrated into the platform to help extend the racing life of the Global Mazda MX-5 Cup machines.
The first time teams will have a chance to put their new insight to use is at the season opener, July 23 – 24 at Road America.