Thunderhill Raceway

Spec MX-5 Challenge 2021 Rounds 9 & 10
July 31st – August 1st
Post-Event Recap

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to start this newsletter off by saying that this season has been one of the toughest seasons that my racing career has brought me. I have improved so much as a driver, learned from many different people, have had many highs, and many lows.

Although we’ve had many uphill battles to climb throughout the season, the Mazda Motorsports Factory Spec MX-5 Team, Haag Performance, were able to pull out a 1st and 2nd place finish in the Championship. I finished in 1st, and my teammate, Bryson Morris finished in 2nd, only one point behind me.

Bryson Morris, my teammate, is an amazing driver who I had the opportunity to learn from, and compete against.

I would like to thank Christopher Smith for coming in this weekend as our team engineer, Chris fixed a lot of car setup issues that have been persistent throughout the entire year.

Friday:

For the first half of Friday, the track day company made a decision to run the proper directions until 2 PM (counterclockwise) although, on the race day, we were running in the clockwise direction.
We gathered some data and we tried multiple setups, but unfortunately, none of them worked.

Saturday:

Saturday only had two sessions in total. A Qualifying and Race. Unfortunately, the car setup was still not there, so we qualified 4th, 1.7 seconds off. When it had come to the race, I was stuck in 4th place for the entire race with the gap to the leaders increasing lap-by-lap, until the leader spun off. That moved me up to 3rd place, which is where I ended up finishing on the track.

That weekend, since the track ran backward, a part of the pitlane blend line was directly on the driving line. At the driver’s meeting, it was said that a driver was to receive strict penalties if they were to cross the blend line. Because of this, I was actually promoted to P1 and won that race because the top two had gotten penalties, from this blend line rule.

Sunday:

Sunday’s race starting order was based on the finishing position on Saturday. I did not know that I won yesterday’s race until halfway through the formation lap! I was instructed by my engineer, Chris Smith, to drive up to P1. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and could only reach P2 before the green flag flew to start the race.

Off of the start, I took the lead. Another driver who had started P3 was on new tires, and the rest of the field were on used tires. so naturally the other ended up passing me and that driver pulled away.

After a few laps had settled, I was behind my teammate, Bryson Morris. Bryson and I were battling lots of traffic from other cars during the race. On the last lap I made a move on Bryson, claiming P2. Unfortunately though, just a few corners later I was taken out by a lapped car (in a different class) and was not able to finish the race.

Although Sunday’s race was a DNF, I am still very happy with the massive improvement that happened on Sunday to go from being 1.7 seconds off, to be the same pace as the fast guys.

YouTube Videos:

I will be posting all my in-car videos from this weekend on my YouTube Channel, Alex Berg Racing (Click on the blue text!)

Other News:

Marketing opportunity in Idemitsu MX-5 Cup Presented by BF Goodrich:

I am looking to race in an Idemitsu MX-5 Cup Race at the end of the season, and am searching for some funding support in exchange for motorsports marketing benefits to do so. If you are interested please reply to this email or call/text me on my cell, +1(403) 479-2882.
The Idemitsu MX-5 Cup runs alongside IMSA on the same weekend/day of most IMSA events.
It is televised on NBC Sports and is live-streamed on IMSA.com.

If you’d like to discuss mutually beneficial partnership opportunities, I’d be happy to provide you with more information and details about the race.
I would like to thank everyone below deeply for their contribution to this year.

We won this Championship together.

• Aaron Jeansonne
• Allen Berg
• Ash Sater
• Ashley Kometer
• Barry “Kiwi” Thompson
• Bruno Carneiro
• Bryson Morris
• Bob Herr
• Cars Yeah!
• Casey Carden
• Charles Carden
• Chris Haag
• Christian Tennyson
• Christopher Nunes
• Christopher Smith
• DAE Systems
• David Cole
• David Cook
• Donna Haag
• Edward Wong
• eKartingNews.com
• Erika Berg-Jimenez
• F1Geeks.com
• Haag Performance
• Ian Cameron
• Jerry Kroll
• Jeremy Morrison
• Jim Bowie
• Jonathan Bommarito
• Joshua Smith
• Justin Ross
• Kandice Small
• Kirk Haag
• Lisa Caceres
• Lydia Small
• Margaret DeGroot
• Mark Greene
• Matt Cresci
• Matt Kometer
• Max Papis
• Michael Duncalfe
• Max Papis Innovations
• Mike Haag
• Milas Mills
• Mo Murray
• MySim.ca
• Pagid Brake Pads
• Penn Elcom
• Phil Stratford
• Polo Magazine
• RAmotosport
• Randy Russell
• Riccardo Arruda
• Rob Gibbons
• Rob Howden
• Ron Gayman
• Ryan Perry
• Scott Kaluza
• Shawn Brealand
• Spec MX-5 Challenge LLC
• Steve Borlik
• Teen Mazda Challenge
• The Red Rocket SM Car #008
• The Silver Surfer SMX Car #55
• Tim Weaver
• Todd Launchbaugh
• Toyo Tires
• Wesley Mollno
• Zach Rubin