After prepping the Long Road Racing supercharged, sequential gearbox Mazda GMX-5 Cup car for the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge, it was time to put it to the test last week.
The forecast for the event was threatening wet weather, and indeed that’s what we got. We had mixed conditions throughout the day: sometimes it was pouring rain so hard that there were rivers flowing through the paddock, and other times there were patches of dry track.
The supercharger package integrates nicely into the MX-5 engine bay. Long Road Racing has turnkey installation for street or track.
That made for a unique time trial experience. The Ultimate Track Car Challenge follows the format of taking the best time of the day for each car. With the weather being so different in each session, and so quick to change, the lap times were really different throughout the day. We certainly went out in each session hoping for optimal track conditions!
One of the highlights of this year’s event was our second timed session of the day. It was still raining a little, and some drivers elected not to participate because of the weather. We, however, did go out, and it turned out to be a fun session. The “supercharged sequential GMX-5” was the quickest car overall thanks to the incredible Global MX-5 Cup Series rain tire we were running. It’s really an incredible rain tire: we were for sure one of the lowest horsepower cars out there, and of course we didn’t have all-wheel drive, yet we were the quickest.
Although the conditions were all over the board, we were pleased that the Long Road Racing entry finished even better overall than it did last year. I think we all agreed that we are coming back to run another day when it’s sunny and we can really see what the lap time would have been in optimal weather conditions!
For anybody that is in the greater New York area, Long Road Racing will be at Monticello Motor Club this Friday and Saturday to give GMX-5 owners the chance to test drive the supercharged sequential GMX-5. There will be a standard GMX-5 on hand, too. I know current owners love their GMX-5 package, but I guarantee they will love the upgradable options! (Of course, these upgrades aren’t for series use!)