Racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course has been a Father’s Day tradition for the team, ever since Jason started racing there as a 12 year old.  He knows where the bump is in the carousel they talk about on TV, he knows the line through the key hole, and some secrets you only find when running 1 inch off the ground in a kart.  But we won’t be there for Father’s Day this year – more to come on that later – so we went for Memorial Day weekend instead.

This trip was to shake down the new Rennkraft Motorworks Spec MX-5.  The Spec MX-5 Series Challenge is a feeder series for sports car racing like Mazda MX-5 Cup, IMSA, and Le Mans.  The car was built by Formidable Racing Development who was also the support team for the weekend.  The Spec Miata races so far this season have been in preparation for the transition to this more powerful and MX-5.

The weekend started with the crew putting the finishing touches on the car so Jason could take it out.  Being a new car, Jason needed to break in the motor and set the the brake pads.  With only a braking session and one short practice he qualified the car in 11th.  During the first race, he took the car up to the battle for 8th and 9th before having a moment and falling back to 15th.  He spent the remainder of the race catching and passing cars, moving up to 12th.  He started the second race in 12th and worked on moving up until a mechanical issue slowed him down, but was still able to finish 12th.  The last race of the weekend was a club race and many of the cars chose not to join.  Jason, needing the seat time, started 5th and finished 5th.

Thanks to Chris Nunes for the great coaching and to the Rennkraft and Formidable Racing Development for the awesome car.   The car started off good and it got better every session.

Jason, Chris Nunes, and Alex Searle

In few weeks it will be Father’s Day but this year we will be at Road America running the SCCA June Sprints in the Spec MX-5 in the STL class.  It is a practice race for the SCCA Cat Nationals and Challenge Series race a few weeks later.  This will be Jason’s second Sprints as a car driver but he has entered the club kart race on Saturday night on several occasions.