MX-5 Cup Season Concludes at VIR

ALTON, October 1, 2009: The 2009 SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup season will come to a close this weekend in spectacular fashion, as the series will make its VIRginia International Raceway debut with a doubleheader finale event.

The 2009 season has been all about Todd Lamb. The driver of the No. 84 AMG/Traqmate/Luna-C Racing MX-5 has won every single race since he joined the series for Round Two at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and started from pole for all but one of those victories (Road America). Lamb is focused on earning the Championship this weekend and may opt to play it safe, even if it means breaking his seven-race win streak.

“VIR is one of my favorite tracks,” Lamb said. “I have a lot of laps there, so it is quite fortunate that the Championship will be decided there. A perfect season (nine wins) would be nice, but the Championship is the primary goal.”

Lamb enters the weekend with a 15-point cushion in the Championship standings, or a 44-point cushion if you factor in dropped races (each MX-5 driver drops his/her lowest scoring race from their point total). Such numbers do not bode well for the rest of his MX-5 Cup competition. Though the point deficit is not insurmountable, Marc Miller and Justin Piscitell would need to have perfect weekends, and Lamb to finish well back, to surpass him in the point standings.

Driving the No. 28 MOCA/RaceNowForAutism/Sparco/MMP MX-5, Miller has been on Lamb’s heels all season. The only other driver to win this season besides Lamb, Miller has consistently finished second or third after taking the season opener at Road Atlanta. He’d be in a better position this weekend to fight Lamb for the title had it not been for a costly point penalty due to contact at Road America.

“I feel confident that Team MER will give me a great car,” Miller said. “I feel we have a good shot at the Championship still and no one on the team has given up hope.”

There could be some magic in the air for Miller this weekend as he returns to a part of the country he’s quite familiar with. Miller grew up in nearby Smith Mountain Lake and started his racing career at area dirt tracks.

After scoring his first MX-5 Cup pole position at Road America, Piscitell has hit an uncharacteristic slump. The 2008 MAZDASPEED MX-5 Cup Shootout winner has struggled to return to the podium the last two rounds after scoring three in-a-row mid-season. A fifth-place finish at Road America and a seventh place at Miller Motorsports Park have allowed Lamb and Miller to slip further away in the point standings, leaving Piscitell with his work cut out for him this weekend in the No. 89 ALARA/DAMG Racing MX-5.

Currently fourth in the Championship standings, Zach Ply had been looking forward to Round Eight at Miller Motorsports Park, likening the corner-happy course to his home track Autobahn Country Club. A 13th-place finish was certainly not what Ply was hoping to take away from the weekend in his No. 27 Team MER/Insight Beverage Co. MX-5, but he’ll have two races at VIR this weekend to try and make up the ground lost to Piscitell.

Teammates Mark Jenkins and Nick Mancuso are neck-and-neck for sixth in the point standings at the moment, and with fifth-place Stan Wilson not entered, whoever collects the most points at VIR could move into the top five in the final standings. Mancuso is still searching for his first podium in the No. 29 Team MER/Lake Forest Sports Cars/Tire Lyna MX-5, while Jenkins is hoping to make a return after scoring his first career-podium at Road Atlanta in the No. 25 Team MER/NJR/Traxxas/BFG/Simpson/Amsoil MX-5.

MX-5 Cup veteran Ara Malkhassian has only two more opportunities to score a podium finish in his No. 11 ALARA Racing MX-5 before the season closes. Malkhassian has scored at least one top-three finish each season since the series began in 2006 and continues to extend the record for most MX-5 Cup career starts at each event. He missed Round Seven at Road America, but will be able to drop the zero from his point total, which will likely advance him a spot or two in the final standings.