Mazda MX-5 Cup Completes 2014 Season at Road Atlanta

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The SCCA Pro Racing Mazda MX-5 Cup Series Presented by BFGoodrich Tires concludes the season at Road Atlanta, as part of the Petit LeMans festivities, for the fourth consecutive year. The last three doubleheader events of this season have been on courses that have one thing in common…pure speed. The circuits of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America feature long straights and fast, flowing corners resulting in some of the highest top speeds these drivers have seen all year. Road Atlanta, will be much the same with its long back straightaway and fast downhill Turn 12 right hander to get back onto the front stretch.
 
The Championship battle is all but over as Kenton Koch, of Glendora, California, has a 90-point lead over John Dean. While he has yet to mathematically clinch the title, Koch must only take the start in both races of the weekend in his No. 12 ALARA Racing/Mazda Motorsports/BFGoodrich Tires MX-5 to sew up the title.
 
As has been the case for the entirety of the 2014 season, Koch will be flanked by four teammates from ALARA Racing with a slight tweak to the lineup. Team Principal Ara Malkhassian, of Houston, will be piloting his traditional No. 11 ALARA Racing MX-5 while team veteran Tim Probert, of Houston, will be at the helm of his No. 26 ALARA Racing MX-5.
 
Mazda MX-5 Cup veteran Justin Piscitell, of Patterson, New York, will pinch hit for Brent Mosing in the No. 10 ALARA Racing MX-5. Timothy Paul, of Mahopac, New York, will put a bow on his rookie season at the controls of the car he has been in all season, the No. 6 ALARA Racing/Cellmark MX-5.
 
Dean, of Sebring, Florida, will most likely have to settle for the runner-up position in the Championship, unless something catastrophic happens to Koch. In his No. 16 Projections Research/PPG MX-5, Dean was able to match Koch with a win of his own after Koch was the victor in the season-opening race. Again, Dean and Koch both took wins at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca doubleheader. It wasn’t until the street race event at Houston that Koch was able to take the lead and create some separation.
 
Nathanial Sparks, of Spanish Fort, Alabama, heads to Atlanta with some momentum after a strong race weekend at Road America. In the sister Sick Sideways car to Dean, Sparks drove his No. 8 OOTSK PERFORMANCE/Bimmerworld MX-5 to a second- and third-place finish at the four-mile circuit in Wisconsin.
 
CJ Wilson Racing will be heading to the season finale race weekend with a full complement of four machines. Series veteran Ari Strauss, of Cold Spring, New York, will be taking the spot normally filled by Charles Paquin, in the No. 27 ModSpace MX-5. Patrick Gallagher, of Thornville, Ohio, will be the other veteran on the team, driving his traditional No. 28 MedBuild/Henry Schein/ModSpace MX-5. Joining the pair of experienced Mazda MX-5 Cup drivers will be rookies Joey Bickers, of Moorpark, California, and Devin Jones, of Mooresville, North Carolina. Bickers will be at the controls of his No. 29 Mazda Motorsports/BFGoodrich Tires MX-5, while Jones is slated to drive the No. 35 Veristor MX-5.
 
For the 2014 finale, Houston-based X-Factor racing will be doubling its traditional two-car effort. Timothy Reger (No. 19 X-Factor Racing MX-5), of Houston, and Chris Haldeman (No. 20 X-Factor Racing MX-5), of Princeton, Texas, will be racing the cars they have been in for most of the season. Nikko Reger (No. 01 X-Factor Racing MX-5), of Houston, and Alex Bachoura (No. 33 X-Factor Racing MX-5), of Houston, will be making their Mazda MX-5 Cup debuts this weekend.
 
Sebastian Landy, of Great Falls, Virginia, will be leading the three-car Atlanta Motorsports Group contingent at Road Atlanta. Landy drove his No. 49 Excitations.com/Atlanta Motorsports Group MX-5 to third place in the Championship standings with 10 of 12 races in the books. The father/son rookie combination of Joseph and Lucas Catania, both of Cazenovia, New York, complete the team lineup.
 
As a rookie, Lucas (No. 17 Atlanta Motorsports Group/NY Spine & Wellness/SOS MX-5) has cracked the top five positions in the Championship standings, and has the opportunity to move up another position by finishing ahead of Landy. Joseph is scheduled to be behind the wheel of his No. 18 Atlanta Motorsports Group/NY Spine & Wellness/SOS MX-5.
 
Completing the expected field will be a pair of single-car teams. While it may sound tough for these drivers to match those on bigger teams, the spec nature of the Mazda MX-5 Cup teams of differing sizes and budgets to match up evenly. Just ask Dean Copeland, of Bowie, Maryland, after a weekend sweep of both races at the last event at Road America. Once again, Dean will be driving his No. 7 Sync Speed Inc./Brimtek MX-5 at the famed Road Atlanta.
 
Christian Tetzlaff, of Athens, Georgia, is the closest driver to home in the field. Tetzlaff has yet to score a race win in the series, but could do so here while driving his No. 23 Lanier Tech/MAZDASPEED MX-5.
 
In the Skip Barber MAZDASPEED Pro Challenge standings, Drake Kemper (No. 99 Royal Rugby SBMX-5), of Toluca Lake, California, leads the pack with 580 markers toward the Championship. First-year driver Ben Albano, of Greenwich, Connecticut, is second in the standings, only 26 points behind Kemper. Second-year driver Robby Foley, of Randolph, New Jersey, is third in the standings, sitting at 526 points.
 
 
Adam Sinclair
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