Jeremy Fletcher took the chequered flag first in this year’s Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup race at the famous Martinsville short track, securing the $25,000 prize as well as a Martinsville clock on Thursday night.
Fletcher finished just 0.003 seconds ahead of Westin Workman, in what was the closest finish in an IMSA race since the 0.011-second margin at the 2013 IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge race at Mosport.
Fletcher, the 2025 Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup champion, was quick all weekend. He topped the scoring sheet in practice and qualified in third position behind Nathan Nicholson and Frankie Barroso. Nicholson, to the #22 McCumbee McAleer Racing’s benefit, had his pole position revoked after failing the pre-race technical inspection and was kicked to the back of the grid.
Starting in second position, Fletcher had trouble behind him in the form of Westin Workman in third. The two drivers had an eventful first 10 laps. They fought nose-to-tail before Fletcher drafted past Nathan Nicholson for the lead. Workman followed him past Nicholson up into second place on lap 12.
By lap 20, Fletcher was chasing Workman for the lead, and the two drivers were 1.3 seconds clear of the rest of the field. Workman in his BSI Racing car led in the late stages of last year’s debut Martinsville MX-5 Cup race before Jared Thomas swooped in for the win at the last moment. Thomas and Workman had been fighting the length of the race, much like Fletcher and Workman this time out.
Workman won the first stage, earning him some prize money. He led a total of 33 laps at that point. Fletcher finished the first stage in second position with seven laps led, ahead of the debuting Earl Bamber.
The Kiwi driver showed serious pace around the short oval in the first stage. He caught up to Workman and Fletcher on lap 38 after starting seventh and cutting through the field.
The fan that was selected to draw a number between 1 and 10 for the grid inversion drew the number seven, which put the seventh-position Frankie Barroso back to the top of the leaderboard. Barroso inherited pole position after Nicholson’s tech failure and briefly led at the start of the race.
Barroso and Justin Adakonis were first and second to start the second stage. Adakonis briefly took the lead before losing it again to Barroso. Behind them, Fletcher and Workman fought their way back up the field.
Debris on track from a battle between Fletcher and Nicholson brought out the first Full Course Caution on lap 58. Nicholson led at the restart from the inside line and came under fire from both Fletcher and Workman before contact between Ethan Tovo and Earl Bamber brought out another Caution. This Yellow turned into a Red Flag due to Tovo’s car taking out some sand barriers when his #30 McCumbee McAleer Racing car veered off track.
Bamber’s day was over with a reported bent toe link from driving into the side of Tovo’s car, going into Turn 3. He would later officially retire the #31 Hendricks Motorsports car on lap 83. A tough break for the highly lauded driver in his Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup and oval race debut.
When the race got back to green, Nicholson was in the lead with Fletcher and Workman on his heels. The three drivers swapped confident dives and bump-drafts, with all three of them leading at certain points of the late stages. In the final 10 laps of the race, Nicholson held a marginal lead on Workman.
The grid was grouped together for one last sprint to the end after Ruben Caceres scuffed the barrier and brought out a Caution on lap 97. With Fletcher opting for the outside line whilst Nicholson and Workman went for the faster inside line, the green flag reignited their three-way battle for victory.
Fletcher tried for a move around the outside on Nicholson, with Workman crossing the track to draft off of him. Nicholson got a great jump on the restart, but his lead did not last long.
In a headline last-moment manoeuvre, Fletcher bumped Nicholson loose from the lead and chased down the chequered flag side-by-side with Workman. Nicholson dropped down to finish in 12th place, where Fletcher and Workman had a true photo-finish.
Jeremy Fletcher was on the better side of the 0.003-second gap in the end, meaning a gutting second-place finish for Westin Workman at the Virginia circuit for the second year in a row.
“It was [a drag race to the finish], and it sucks to finish second two years in a row, but I’m just happy to be here,” Workman said after the race. “I felt like we did a really good job this evening, we won the [first] stage, we led a lot of laps in stage one. We got kind of messed up with the invert there, but made my way back up there.”
By winning the first stage and taking second place at the end, Westin Workman ended the day $12,000 richer than he started it. The BSI Racing driver was satisfied with his performance at this event.
“I’m just happy I had the chance to win it there, just came up a little bit short this weekend. So, we’ll regroup and try it again next year.”
Race winner Jeremy Fletcher took home the big $25,000 prize as well as the Martinsville clock, a perfect finish to his 2025 championship season.
“We came here to win this time, and we got it done after a nice championship year. So, I can’t thank everybody enough.”
When the 18-year-old American driver was asked what he was planning to do with the awarded clock, he said: “[My] Grandma will tell me what to do with that. She’s the one that’s really been wanting it, so, happy I get to bring her home a present.”
The champion ended up with the upper hand in the drag race to the line after showing excellent race craft through the 100-lap race. Fletcher and Workman congratulated each other after getting out of their cars, a show of sportsmanship between the young drivers.
“It was too close to call. I know Westin was pretty strong off the bottom coming off the corner, and I think we struggled a little bit there. But I got power down, I was wound up in [Turn] Three and Four, and we got it done,” Fletcher said.
Some standout performances from the non-regular MX-5 Cup drivers came from Jagger Jones, Frankie Barroso, and Capers Zentmeyer.
Jagger Jones qualified sixth and navigated the midfield well throughout the race. He was often the leader of the remaining cars as the leading cars pulled away. In the end, when he was running in fourth, he benefited from Fletcher’s move on Nicholson to take a podium finish in third place.
Frankie Barroso fared well after starting from pole and coming out on the lucky side of the grid inversion. He fought Justin Adakonis deftly before the leaders eventually cut through the field again and eventually ended the race in fourth place.
Local driver Capers Zentmeyer is a chiropractor by trade, but a repeat entry at this Mazda MX-5 Martinsville event from last year after making a name for himself in the Spec Miata scene. Starting from fifth place, the Martinsville-based driver stayed in the mix at the front for the duration of the race. He even had a clean but competitive battle with Jagger Jones for a few laps around lap 76. This year, he finished in sixth position after a fifth-place finish last year.
Series sophomore Sally Mott had a great outing, putting her Spark Performance car in all the right places to finish fifth. She kept her nose clean throughout the event, even narrowly avoiding being collected in the Tovo-Bamber incident.
With the Martinsville 2025 event now finished, the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup season has come to an end. The drivers and teams will spend the offseason gearing up for another season of racing, starting in Daytona next January.
Images courtesy of Mazda
