The second race of the Spec MX-5 Challenge revised 2020 season is set for July 24-26 at historic Road Atlanta. 16 drivers have entered, which makes it the largest field since the series debuted in 2018.
“The Series has a goal of 15 or more cars at each event, and we have worked hard with Mazda to support new car builds and to create a race schedule that makes it clear which events will have the best car count,” said Thomas Martin, Managing Director of Spec MX-5 Challenge, LLC. “With the COVID-19 wildcard considered, we are pleased that we’ve hit our goal at Road Atlanta so early after racing has re-started,” he added.
In addition, the driver line-up for the Road Atlanta event has many notable drivers:
- 2019 SRO GT4 Americas EAm and 2017 Pirelli World Challenge TCA Champion Matt Fassnacht
- 2019 Spec MX-5 Challenge National Champion Tom Martin III
- IMSA TCR driver Will Tally
- 2019 Spec MX-5 SimRacing Challenge National Champion D.J. Alessandrini
- Former LMP1 and LMP2 championship-winning engineer and chassis tuner Rob Lebel
- 2020 Spec MX-5 Challenge race winner and well-known SM driver Tyler Quance
- Emerging hotshot drivers Grant West, Aiden Fassnacht and Joey Atanasio
IMSA driver Tally commented “The level of competition in Mazda racing is typically among the highest anywhere, so I’m excited to return to Spec MX-5 Challenge racing. The team atmosphere and the close racing are really fun and a great way to benchmark your progress.”
Drivers will be competing head-to-head on track, but will be entered in three separate competitions for points and qualification for the National Championship event to be held at Circuit of The Americas in November. National Series competitors run in 8 races across the nation, while regional competitors score points in 5 races on either the Eastern or Western sides of the country. Invitational competitors score points at a single event. All these points carryover to help give drivers a good shot at the expected $50,000 first prize at the Championship.
Race 1 of the Road Atlanta weekend will take place on Saturday, July 25 at 2:30pm EDT. Race 2 will green flag at 2:05pm on Sunday, July 26. Timing & Scoring will be available on Race-Monitor.com and the RaceMonitor app.