Six years after liftoff, Aaron Jeansonne’s (pronounced ZHAWN-sown) voyage into professional motorsports has been steadily gaining speed, and this season it’s on course to reach maximum velocity. With half of the 2023 Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by BFGoodrich in the books, Jeansonne has scored two wins along with two other podiums and leads the overall title chase following the Watkins Glen double-header (above).
“It’s so hard to win these races, so to score a consecutive win in this series after my first one definitely felt special,” says Jeansonne.
“I feel that extending the points lead after the season’s halfway point really validates our championship efforts. It also speaks for the strength of my team, JTR Motorsports Engineering, that we’ve shown race-winning speed at each track so far on the schedule. I’m so excited to have the Turn 2 Driver’s Club along for the ride, too, as we carry the momentum into Road America. Our goal remains to arrive prepared, run up front and collect good finishes.”
At 24 years old, Jeansonne, a native of Sulphur, La., is finally seeing the benefits of the slow-burn trajectory his career path has taken. Like a multi-stage rocket, he’s taken many steps that have provided momentary highs toward his ultimate destination.
In 2017, he finished runner-up in the Lucas Oil Formula Car Championship, was awarded the prestigious Team USA Scholarship that sent him to compete in the UK, and finished as a Road to Indy Shootout finalist.
“The Team USA Scholarship was really a big break for me,” he recalls. “The contacts and mentorship I got during that period were crucial. Racing in England was really where I learned how tough this is. The racing was really hard over there – like MX-5 Cup, just without fenders.”
The Road to Indy Shootout, which was then supported by Mazda, was Jeansonne’s next stage in pursuing a path in open-wheel racing. As a finalist, he found himself in the proverbial position of being so close and yet so far. But the opportunity was not a loss, as it further exposed him to the Mazda ladder system.
“I developed an interest in the Mazda sports car ladder. I started following the MX-5 Cup and thought it was pretty cool and exciting,” Jeansonne says. “I got in the seat of a Mazda and liked it right away. I was fortunate to be nominated for the Road to 24 Scholarship Shootout, as it was known then in 2019, and came up just short to Jared Thomas.
“For the following year, I was able to compete in Spec MX-5 Challenge and Spec Miata, and that earned me another invitation back to the MX-5 Cup Scholarship Shootout when I won the $110,000 scholarship prize. I’ve been racing in MX-5 Cup ever since.”
In his first two MX-5 Cup seasons in 2021 and ’22, Jeansonne finished eighth, then 10th overall. The learning curve was steep, but he remained persistent and motivated.
“It takes so much to do well in this series,” says Jeansonne (below). “I was learning a lot and there were some mistakes that I made and chances I had where I didn’t execute, plus there are those inevitable bits of bad luck along the way.”
Now, the persistence is paying off.
“This year that’s all flipped around and that’s why the change looks so drastic,” he says.
Should his trajectory stay on its current course, winning the 2023 MX-5 Cup and the $250,000 that goes with it could put the Jeansonne rocket ship into a career-defining orbit.
THE FINAL STRETCH
When the Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by BFGoodrich returns after taking the month of July off, the final stretch to the finish will see the field take on three celebrated road courses in the quest to crown a season champion who’ll earn $250,000 for their feat.
Road America’s classic four-mile challenge gets the MX-5 Cup grid back in gear for Rounds 9 & 10, Aug. 5-6, followed by the undulations and fast, sweeping bends of Virginia International Raceway for the next two races, Aug. 26-27.
September offers everyone a chance to catch their breath and prepare for the now traditional doubleheader finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Oct. 11-13.
And given that, with only one exception, every season of the MX-5 Cup has gone down to the wire, there’s no reason to think the 2023 season will wrap up in any other way.
* All Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by BFGoodrich races are streamed live on RACER.com and archived on The RACER Channel on YouTube. To view the full season schedule and learn more about the series, visit mx-5cup.com.
