Buttonwillow Raceway Park
Spec MX-5 Challenge 2021 Round #1&2
Post-Event Recap
Top Left Image: Alex with the Mazda Motorsports USA Factory Team, Haag Performance, after winning Saturday’s race.
From Right to left:
Rob Gibbons/Crew, Bob Herr/Car Transportation/Crew,
Justin Ross/Engineer, Mike Haag/Team Owner,
Scott Smith/Mazda Motorsports USA, Kirk Haag/Crew, Milas Mills/Crew, Donna Haag/Team Owner, Alex Berg/Racecar Driver.
The First Race
Saturday:
Saturday, April 17th was the first race day. With qualifying in the AM and a race in the afternoon, I started the day by doing 2 laps in qualifying and taking Pole Position by nearly 8 tenths of a second to P2. There were many cars on track so it was very difficult to get a clean lap, but with a smart plan and strategy thanks to Justin Ross, my car Engineer, and Radio Spotter, I was able to set my qualifying lap, of 1:59.815, which not only was quick enough for Pole Position, but also enough to break the qualifying track record!
For the race, I started on Pole Position, to lead all laps of the race, and finish P1 with a healthy gap of 3.715 seconds, and also taking the race lap record!
Although I led all laps of the race, does not mean my victory was easy, I had multiple challenges such as avoid other classes’ crashes, and slower cars in other classes, I ended up passing the most cars (12) out of anyone in the race!
Sunday:
On Sunday, everything was a little different, the track layout had changed, and the qualifying format was different. Instead of qualifying, a qualifying race was held, and the finishing positions of that race were the starting grid for the main race event.
I started on Pole position, but a mistake when passing slower cars from other classes made me drop to 6th, I ended up finishing 4th.
In the race, I came from 4th, to lead on lap 4, and never look back, passing the most cars in the race (8), setting the fastest lap by 9 tenths of a second, and winning by over 6 seconds!
That was the 2nd victory out of the 2 first races last weekend!
Partners:
As always, I would not be able to go racing without the help of my partners.
I would like to thank Mazda Motorsports USA, Max Papis Innovations, Haag Performance, Penn Elcom, Spec MX-5 Challenge, Polo America Racing & Polo America Magazine, and Foxxr Digital Marketing, the success of this weekend wouldn’t happen without the help of all my partners.
Our wins this weekend are the start of an encouraging championship to come!
Please check out my website: AlexBergRacing.com, made by Foxxr Digital Marketing to find the websites of all of my partners.