Cicero prevails in MX-5 Cup Race 2
Nate Cicero survived a wild final lap to win Race 2 of the Whelen MX-5 Cup opener at Daytona this morning.
Cicero drove away from the pack after two separate incidents on the last lap. Two-time series champion Jared Thomas caught the worst of a five-car chain reaction of bumps into the West Horseshoe and spun out of a podium place.
Thomas and rookie Westin Workman were both impacted by the wreck and dropped out of the lead fight. Seconds later, John Jodoin pushed Aaron Jeansonne off at the Le Mans Chicane as they battled further back in the top ten.
But that was of no concern to Cicero who finished a whopping (by series standards) 0.408s ahead of Gonzalez.
However, Gonzalez received a ten-second penalty earlier in the race for incident responsibility, having been ruled at fault for a chain-reaction crash that took Julian DaCosta out of contention.
Jeremy Fletcher moved up to second place with Selin Rollan just behind him in third, followed by Race 1 winner Gresham Wagner in fourth. After Gonzalez’s penalty and others were applied, he finished eighth.
Wagner leads the championship standings after two races, holding the tiebreaker over Fletcher with his Race 1 win.
Connor Zilisch’s rotten luck at Daytona continued after he retired late in the race after a massive lock-up into Turn One.
There was also a scary crash in the tri-oval which led to the race’s only Full Course Yellow – Preston Pardus got pushed into the wall and slid into the grass, just as Nathan Nicholson arrived on the scene, also out of control. The two collided but thankfully neither driver was hurt.
The Esses At Watkins Glen announces partnership with WGI
‘The Esses At Watkins Glen’, the name of the 172-acre housing development planned for construction on a plot adjacent to the southeast border of the track’s property, has signed a partnership with the Watkins Glen International circuit.
Part of this new agreement included title sponsorship of the Michelin Pilot Challenge race held on the eve of the Six Hours of The Glen. The race will now be known as “The Esses 120 at The Glen”.
In addition to announcing the partnership in the media centre earlier today, the reveal served as a formal unveiling of the plans for the property development, which is set to include single-family homes, condominiums, storage garages, trailer parking and nature trails.
Hand taking “a lot of pride” in Mustang GT3 programme role
Joey Hand, who played a key role in the development of the new Mustang GT3 and is part of the factory line-up in GTD Pro this year says he is thrilled to see the programme finally in action.
Hand, who previously formed part of Ford’s GT GTLM/GTE programme, was part of the Mustang GT3 programme from the very beginning and explained the chance to help make history with Ford was something he relishes as a driver.
“I was involved from the very start, I was first to drive it in the parking lot!” He told DSC. “The first time the Mustang turned a wheel before we even went to Sebring, I was there. There’s a lot of pride involved there. It’s different from any other car I’ve developed because it’s a customer car, you’re thinking about accommodating every type of person with the seat, the pedals, the dash, and the knobs.
“Racing is obviously what I love most as a driver, but being involved in developing a car is a close second. You see things you don’t expect when you’re involved like that. I’ve sat in the car when they said “Hey where do you think the steering column should be?” when it was a bare frame. I take tons of pride in that.
“You think about the Ford GT, the history made, winning Le Mans 50 years later and having a car in the Henry Ford Museum, when you think about that, you think about making more history.”
The Mustang GT3 is going to be racing around the world, with customer teams in every major championship. But Hand isn’t thinking about the opportunity with Ford to race further afield than IMSA and tick off some bucket list races at this stage.
“It’s not crossed my mind. I’m only thinking about IMSA full-time. Maybe sometime in Years 2 and 3 when it’s in every major race in sportscars… I wouldn’t turn anything down. But for me, it’s the WeatherTech Series and being involved in the Multimatic programme. I’ve been a Ford guy for a while and I plan on being a Ford guy for a while longer.”
Corvette & Ford Tech Tours
IMSA’s YouTube channel has uploaded two new tech tours for the brand new Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Ford Mustang GT3.
Featured image courtesy of IMSA/DOLE
