Winning the penultimate Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin race has propelled Gresham Wagner (No. 5 McCumbee McAleer Racing) to the points lead. A wild last lap at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta had major implications for the 2024 championship.
Wagner’s Round 13 race got off to a rocky start when he got wide entering Turn One and dropped to ninth. Climbing back through the field was hardly a challenge for Wagner who was back to second seven laps later despite damaging his car.
“I’m not sure what exactly happened,” Wagner said. “I went into the corner and got hit in the right front and damaged the car a bit. So not an ideal start to the race. It took me a few laps to get a hold of the damage and the balance of the car, because it was definitely a handful after that.”
Once Wagner recovered, he was back with his teammates Jeremy Fletcher (No. 22 McCumbee McAleer Racing) and Nate Cicero (No. 83 McCumbee McAleer Racing) at the front of the field.
Tyler Gonzalez (No. 57 Saito Motorsports Group) was quick to break up the MMR party at the front and took over the lead for several laps before near catastrophe in Turn Five. Gonzalez slid sideways and across the gravel trap, but miraculously got the car back on track and pointed straight.
Wagner re-took the lead, but that’s when the rest of the championship challengers: Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering), Westin Workman (No. 13 BSI Racing) and Aaron Jeansonne (No. 24 JTR Motorsports Engineering) entered the fray.
Lap after lap, Wagner continued to lead when the only full-course caution of the race came out for a car in the tires at Turn 1. When Wagner was credited with leading another three laps under yellow before the race restarted, he officially earned 10 bonus points for leading the most laps of the race.
The race resumed with three and a half minutes remaining and the championship fight was on.
Workman, the series’ top rookie, made his way to the lead and brought an up-to-speed Gonzalez with him.
Not far behind them, having the best race of his MX-5 Cup career, was rookie Parker DeLong (No. 42 PDR Racing). He was up to fourth before the full-course yellow, but had a poor restart and fell out of the top five.
On the final lap, Gonzalez led the field into Turn 10, but suddenly slowed and pulled off track. This gave Wagner the lead with Workman and Fletcher side-by-side behind him. As the pack climbed the hill to Turn 11, there was contact between Fletcher and Workman, which ended with Fletcher in gravel. It also killed Workman’s momentum and enabled DeLong and Thomas to slide past.
At the finish line, it was Wagner with the win by 0.592s over DeLong in second and Thomas in third.
Fletcher could not escape the gravel, did not take the checkered flag, and ended up classified in 20th position.
In addition to leading the most laps, Wagner set the fastest lap of the race adding another 10 bonus points to his total for the race. This bumps him to the championship lead.
“I thought we were in a really good spot there with about 10 minutes to go, and then really didn’t like seeing that yellow come out,” Wagner said. “Would have liked to end the race the way it should have been, with three fast guys up there fighting for it. Glad I could just hold on, on the restart and bring home a win to start the weekend.”
A runner-up finish for DeLong was a great reward after a trying season.
“It’s amazing,” DeLong said. “I’m having a great time out here racing. I want to thank my dad, my crew chief Chris [Smith], and everybody working their butts off last night to get this thing fast. I want to thank Bridgehaul and Bennett Trucking for all their support, they’ve done a lot to help me and I’m very happy.
“My toe was knocked out, so the car wasn’t as fast on the straightaway, and I was struggling. All season, we’ve really been fighting car setup. We’re a single car team, so we’re just really finding the car set up. I knew I had the pace to run up front, but just had to get the car right and we got the car right this weekend. We were fast and on the last lap I made the lunge for it.”
Thomas pulled his car into pitlane unsure how he ended up in third, since he was sixth exiting Turn 10.
“We were mixing it up, the whole race, and it was a typical MX-5 Cup championship weekend antics,” Thomas said. “I was fighting for everything I had out there and so was everybody else. I knew it was going to get crazy at the end and I didn’t know how it was going to pan out, but this time it was in my favor a little bit.”
It’s a strong points finish for Thomas, who moves into second in the points ahead of the season finale race.
Workman finished fourth, followed by Jeansonne, keeping the championship tight with only one more race to go.
Provisionally, Wagner leads with 3,470 points, followed by Thomas with 3,450 and Cicero with 3,350. Fletcher’s championship hopes aren’t dashed just yet; he is fourth with 3,330 points. Jeansonne is fifth with 3,260 points.
Workman has clinched the Rookie of the Year with his fourth-place finish and point total of 3,170 heading into the last race.
Friday’s season finale race is slated to begin at 9:50am ET with live streaming on the RACER and IMSA YouTube channels.