Mazda MX-5 Cup Heads For Barber Motorsports Park

LEEDS, Ala. — After two long months since the checkered flag flew in St. Pete, the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin is back in action this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.

The lush 2.38-mile Alabama circuit has not hosted the series since 2019, which means few drivers on the current grid have the experience of racing Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup there.

It may have been a two-month break, but there was plenty of MX-5 Cup excitement to fill the gap: the six-part docuseries ‘First to the Finish’ made its debut on Prime Video. The show follows drivers Heather Hadley and Sally Mott, plus team owner Shea Holbrook as they navigated the 2024 season. All three will be at Barber this week, although Hadley and Mott now drive for different teams than they did in the show.

Round five and six are the first race weekend back since the public (and the paddock) had a very intimate look into their lives. Will anything change as a result?

“I’m feeling really excited to kind of hear the opinions of what everyone thinks about it,” Mott said. “I know my fellow competitors are watching and since they’re familiar with the series, they can point out things better than just the general viewer like, ‘Oh why did you say this on the radio while you were driving?’ or just like small things and like racing incidents so that part of it I am a little bit nervous about just because it was my rookie season I feel like I did make a lot of mistakes.

“But the other part of me is really excited and I think that people will have more interest in me and more respect maybe. I feel like they’re going to know me better than I know them because they’ve watched a whole season of my racing and it showed a lot of things that social media can’t capture. So, yeah I’m really excited to see what people think and what their opinions are and how they view me now versus back then when they didn’t know much about me.”

With four races in the books, only two drivers have earned MX-5 Cup race wins so far this season: Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) and Tyler Gonzalez (No. 57 BSI Racing). Thomas, already a two-time champion, comes into Barber with the points lead, while Gonzalez is down in fifth due to DNF in Race 2 at Daytona. He does have one thing working in his favor though: he’s raced MX-5 Cup at Barber before, in 2019 at the age of 14.

“Barber Motorsports Park is definitely one of the tighter tracks that we go to on the schedule because it was originally built for motorcycles,” Gonzalez said. “There’s not a lot of passing opportunities, not a lot of heavy breaking corners, so it’s going to bring some tight racing for sure, but at the same time I think there’s another possibility to see maybe a two or three car breakaway for the lead like we saw in St. Pete, so I’m looking forward to it.” Since the series’ last visit to Barber, the MX-5 Cup car has gained more horsepower and a sequential SADEV transmission. Gonzalez thinks that could make learning the circuit easier for the new drivers. “The car has changed tremendously since I raced there back in 2019,” Gonzalez explained. “It was before the sequential transmission before the Michelin tires… so yeah, definitely will be some new challenges, but honestly it should be a little bit easier for the newer drivers that are coming to Barber Motorsports Park for the first time.”

This year’s freshman class continues to impress with four rookies in the top 10 for points. They are led by Mazda MX-5 Cup Shootout Scholarship recipient Noah Harmon (No. 77 AAG Racing) who is currently fourth in the point standings.